“One thing is certain from the Tim Cook interview at the “All Things Digital D10″ event, and that is that he has the company line down pat,” Gene Steinberg writes for TechNightOwl. ” What’s more, his positions don’t appear to represent the huge departure from the Jobs era at Apple that some would have you believe.”
“This doesn’t mean that Cook hopes or expects to be another Steve Jobs, or that they plan to channel Apple’s co-founder in plotting corporate strategy or developing new products. Indeed, there’s one telling point in the wide-ranging interview in which Cook recounts his visit to the home of the ailing Steve Jobs to be essentially anointed as the next CEO of Apple,” Steinberg writes. “According to Jobs, the Disney company’s biggest mistake after Walt Disney died was to attempt to imagine what he would have done in their place. So Disney suffered until new leadership found the way to turn the huge ship around and move ahead.”
Steinberg writes, “Apple has the advantage of having replaced Jobs while he was still alive and, though seriously ill, as active as he could be. Since Cook was already a temporary CEO, and had gotten used to the reigns of power, the transition was clearly far less difficult.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We won’t know how well Apple is doing without Jobs until five or so years from now, when the rapid pace of change will have made it impossible for Jobs to have planned, beyond very general broad-stroke terms, the products Apple will be selling in 2017. As time goes by, we’ll have a clearer picture of just how well, or if, the team that Jobs assembled can continue Apple’s remarkable run.
Even in – and explicitly because of – Jobs’ absence, the pressure to execute is higher than ever on Cook, Ive, and the rest of Apple’s employees. You guys actually had it easy when Steve was here.