“You’ve likely heard that Steve Jobs has stepped down as lord and master of the iCult. In this week’s Nerdcam, we reflect and ask the multibillion-dollar question: will Steve Jobs be missed?” Luke Hopewell writes for ZDNet. “Jobs’ crowning achievement came from ‘reinventing’ the music player, with the release of the iPod. It made digital music a reality, and set the stage for future innovations.”
MacDailyNews Take: iCult? Seriously? And iPod, as great as it is, wash’t Jobs’ crowning achievement. Apple ][, the Mac, Next/Mac OS X, iPhone, iPad, iOS, Pixar… Take your pick. The man has been a dynamo of crowning achievements for his entire career.
Hopewell writes, “His lauded second album, the iPhone, was also nothing short of spectacular. It took the smartphone beyond the boardroom and the sales team, and gave consumers access to everything they never knew they needed.”
MacDailyNews Take: If you don’t understand the impact of Macintosh, or ignore it completely, should you really be trying to write tech-related articles?
“But as consumers mourn the abdication of the Apple throne, the company’s competitors can make out the faint sound in the distance of a trumpet. This trumpet call is set to get louder and louder, and will be heard far and wide by every technology manufacturer who has tried and failed to knock Apple from its arrogant perch for the last decade,” Hopewell writes. “This trumpet will call them back to war.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Arrogant perch?” Careful, Luke, your bias is showing.
“I can tell you exactly how it went down when Jobs resigned at the offices of its competitors: there were likely cheers and celebrations as the enemy’s key general took his leave,” Hopewell writes. “Steve Jobs won’t be missed by the competition, because now there’s no excuse for a lack of innovation. No more ‘Apple did it first,’, no more ‘this is like that Apple product we saw six months ago.’ That’s right, Apple enemies. It’s time to go to war.”
Full article, with a video of a writer who should stay off camera complete with a recreation of Hopewell’s supposed competitor’s celebrations over a great man resigning due to debilitating illness, here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s only one reason why competitors would celebrate the resignation of Steve Jobs: They see a chance that they can continue to be lazy, fail to innovate, and yet still turn a profit. Hooray, the hall-of-fame quarterback just got injured, now maybe our shitty, out-of-shape team has a chance to win the game without having to be great! Nice. Wonderful sportsmanship, Luke.
Well, keep dreaming. As we just wrote one article back, “Tim Cook is going to surprise a lot of people.”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Lame, oh so lame.
Maybe now Apple will be less anally locked down there would be more for competitors to fear rather than less. User choice is good.
YooHoo… breeze? Where are you?
This guy is a wack-job. Does he REALLY think Apple’s bench is so shallow? Does he really think that Apple will suddenly sink to its competitors’ lowest common denominator of mediocre products? Hah! No chance. If anything, I’m sure Tim Cook is motivated to show that Apple can continue to innovate just as they’ve always done…
So basically the idea is that the enemy now stand a chance not because they’re going to rise to Apple’s challenge, but because Apple is going to drop down to their level. Wow, a win for everyone then! What tosh.
Like your MDN remarks.
They couldn’t innovate before he stood down, how is that going to change in their favour now that he has? Gee there has been a lot of rubbish articles about Steve and Apple in the tech press in the last few days. Old puff bag Dvorak is sprouting about the App store on one of the PC sites and the rest of the wallies are coming out to join him with their pens dipped in shit.
I’m afraid the ‘competition’ is so inept that Apple will be eating their lunch for many years.
It reminds me that, upon the death of F. D. Roosevelt, Hitler and the Japanese high command thought a miracle has occurred and that they were going to win the war.
A miracle did occur. His name was Harry S. Truman
“Locked down” is a benefit to >97% of users. With statistics like that no manufacturer would change his product.
Can someone explain why some people think Apple is a cult??? I just don’t get it; we buy Apple products because they work well (#1), are easy to use, and look nice. Those three go hand-in-hand. There’s no magic, and it’s nothing that some other company couldn’t duplicate.
Unfortunately, other tech companies seem unwilling to spend the time, or as Steve put’s it, just say “no” to most ideas on the table. For instance, HP could’ve saved a lot of money and bad press by not buying Palm; although, cutting their money-losing divisions may be the best thing that ever happened to them.
Apple does make mistakes: The G4 Cube didn’t sell well; Xserves, apparently, didn’t either; personally, I think lowering the cost of the first iPhone by $200 so soon and giving $100 gift cards was not good form; and ripping-off Sherlock. (Although, they always acknowledged SuperClock.)
The competition is suffering from its own reality distortion field, thinking they can compete with slapped-together plastic and no hope of an ecosystem.
the product roadmap is probably good for 2-5 years at Apple.
there won’t be much of the competition unless they have enough money to burn before Apple is fresh out of ideas from the Jobs era…again this is assuming that Apple is static and the current administration have nothing to add in their labs.
remember the announcement in 2007 that the iPhone was 4-5 years ahead of the competition. The competition is only catching up to something Apple had years ago.
hardware is easy to catch up on, it’s the combination of software, eco system, support system, sales/manufacturing channels and hardware that’s hard to copy.
Tim Cook has been working closely with Steve Jobs and you can bet that there is already a 5-10 year game plan in place. The fact that Steve is still with Apple just means he will continue to plan for the future with Tim and work with him in the transitional period. And who’s to say that Tim hasn’t been taking more of the reins long before now?
Steves stepping down was planned for far in advance of his actually doing it and the competition should still be worried at least for another 5 years.
Steve Jobs and Apple plan ahead.
My 2 cents
Competitors should be careful what they wish for. If Apple was to stop innovating, unlikely as it may sound, they would have nothing to base their copycat products on. Given current competitors past record on innovation, their lunch will be up for grabs for smart and lean startups with a vision and the savvy to say “no” when appropriate.
Whistling pass the graveyard is what it sound like to me.
Brilliant MDN take:
“Hooray, the hall-of-fame quarterback just got injured, now maybe our shitty, out-of-shape team has a chance to win the game without having to be great!”
Easily Imagined Scenario:
This week all the TechTard journalists are at the beach getting absolutely PLASTERED with piña coladas spiked with extra vodka. Drunk off their asses, they begrudgingly Apple’s success all these years despite their personal cheerleading of mediocrity and laziness. In a fit of quivering anger, they punch a lame and illogical article into their smartphone, hit ‘SEND’ and proceed to puke up lunch on their spouse.
THUS this week’s slew of TechTard anti-Apple drivel diarrhea.
:-Q**********
*HICK*
“…they begrudgingly recall Apple’s success…”
~More vodka please waiter~~