“Choosing to back up his argument with passages from a dusty 65-year-old tome, Forrester CEO George Colony has written a controversial blog post provocatively titled ‘Apple = Sony’ in which he argues that now that Steve Jobs is dead, Apple is coasting on fumes and will begin its inevitable decline within the next two to four years,” Leander Kahney writes for Wired.
“Much of Colony’s argument comes down to this assertion: There is no longer a ‘singular charismatic leader’ at Apple. When it comes to reality distortion fields, Tim Cook may be no Steve Jobs, but much of what Colony says about the vacuum of leadership at Cupertino is completely untrue. In fact, Apple’s arguably in better shape now than it ever was when Jobs was at the helm,” Kahney writes. “it was Steve Jobs himself who recommended Cook for the job. And it was precisely because Cook is a ‘special, magical person’ that Jobs groomed him to be his successor.”
Kahney writes, “Colony’s right in that Apple no longer has a “singular charismatic leader” now that Jobs is gone. Instead, it has two: Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, Steve Jobs’ chosen successors, whose talents and skills in leading Apple to greatness have been proven again and again over the last decade… It’s an easy bet to say that Apple will eventually decline in the post-Jobs era, which effectively stretches from Oct. 6, 2011 to infinity. Likewise, the sun may one morning fail to rise in the east. But Colony’s more immediate predictions of Apple’s demise are stupid and wrong-headed. Steve Jobs planned the future of Apple well. This is only the beginning.”
Much more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Related article:
Forrester CEO: Apple will decline in the post Steve Jobs era – April 26, 2012