“As stunning developments in the technology industry go, this one happened in a manner that felt inevitable,” Harry McCracken writes for TIME Magazine. “n yesterday afternoon’s crisp, matter-of-fact letter, Steve Jobs told Apple’s board and the world that he was unable to continue as the company’s chief executive. He asked to serve as chairman, and recommended that Apple COO Tim Cook succeed him as CEO. And he said that Apple’s best days were ahead of it and expressed gratitude to his coworkers.”
“Of course, one hopes that Jobs chose this particular week to step down as CEO not because his health left him no other option but because he felt Apple was ready to move on without his day-to-day involvement,” McCracken writes. “If so, his timing was impeccable. The iPhone and iPad are enormous hits that have left most of Apple’s competitors flummoxed; Apple’s market capitalization, revenue and profit have all passed those of Microsoft. Simply put, it’s this era’s preeminent technology company.”
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McCracken writes, “If the company succeeds at [figuring out what the next big thing is] in the years ahead, it won’t be evidence that Steve Jobs turned out to be replaceable. Instead, it’ll be proof that he taught the company which so many fans and detractors believed was a one-man show to go on being Apple without his intensive involvement. That would be Jobs’ final and finest one more thing — and right now, the odds seem decent that he’ll pull it off.”
Read more in the full article here.
Along with the PeeCee. End of one era the beginnings of another.
it is, in fact, poetic.
Like I said before in another article, even after Steve leaves this world, Apple’s products will be designed by Steve’s Ghost.
As he said, the timing was impeccable, as Apple fires on all cylinders and dominates practically all industry segments where it operates, and even the one where it doesn’t it shows significant growth (desktop).
And the Street is actually reacting with a resounding ‘meh’ on this news. After an initial knee-jerk reaction yesterday after hours (5.5% drop), the stock slowly recovered, to open today only 2% below. For those who don’t remember, over the past years, every time Jobs went on a medical leave, stock dropped 3-4% and took a few days to recover. Apparently, Steve’s resignation from his CEO position has already been pretty much baked into the stock price.
Mind you, Exxon-Mobile stock is experiencing greater drop today than AAPL… And their CEO (Rex Tillerson) is firmly in place.
Apple 3.0
I think in a couple years, we’ll be able to look back and see that Apple did indeed win the PC Wars. Right now, we only see that HP is bailing. Dell is seeing weak sales in the future. Acer lost money. Lenovo only makes a fraction, 1/74th, of what Apple makes. The PC War is over, it’s just that no one knows it yet. Apple is leading the Post-PC world, and not only did it kill the PC era, but it won. Profits rule, marketshare drools.
Relax, everyone. Check back in about two years and we’ll see where we are. The descent into mediocrity isn’t going to happen in 24 hours. True, we will mark time from this date but, it will take a while for the deniers to come to grips with the reality that Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs. I won’t miss Steve’s famous arrogance but we will all miss his visionary leadership. Tim Cook is not a visionary – he’s a very good tech guy very much like all the other very good tech guys across the industry and throughout the world. Steve stood alone. Tim has lots of company.
Steve deserves to flaunt any sort of arrogance. He stood before the biggest giants, the loudest critics and most negative naysayers and proved them wrong while giving customers the best tech and software in the industry. He did it with a $1 a year salary. I like his arrogance a lot.
Tim Cook has plenty of talents and like Steve, he is surrounded by some of the brightest in the industry.
“Of course, one hopes that Jobs chose this particular week to step down as CEO not because his health left him no other option but because he felt Apple was ready to move on without his day-to-day involvement”
Great fantasy, but the reality is that Steven would no way dump his CEO job if there was hope that he would recover. The fact that he dragged his medical leave for so long without returning to active role is very telling.
Obviously, there is no hope for health improvement any more. The only thing that left is to try to live as long as possible (though, unfortunately, hardly any significant time) and if current condition allows, non-regularly participate in Apple’s activity.
Obviously, you have no idea what you are talking about. If it rings your bell to believe that the glass is half-empty, go for it. But please keep it to yourself.
Another admirer of fantasy.
Jobs said himself that before he was able to fulfil the duties, even while on medical leave, even mainly concerning key decisions, but now he can not do this any more even in such limited way.
Do you think Jobs lied in his letter about this and actually meant to say that he just “feels like it” to resign?
Aw shucks. The “One More Thing” line finally caused a tear to well up. That would be just be too incredibly awesome if Apple could pull it off.
Steve Jobs must have finished a HUGE project yesterday.
My guess :: The Sub $100 iOS app enabled Apple TV cloud computer.
Apple is going to flip the marketshare on Windows and Android.
+1
Well, maybe not the computer 🙂 but I’ll bet he did finish some major project.
If you think that all or even most of Apple’s products spring from the mind of Steve Jobs, sell your Apple stock and all your Apple products now. If you know that this isn’t even remotely true then stay here and continue to be delighted with Apple.
I’m staying because I know better.