“I was recently talking with some of Apple’s competitors and they gave me some interesting feedback on how they feel about Apple,” Tim Bajarin writes for TechPinions. “The first thing they told me is that they really respect Apple and find them to be very important to the industry in general. And to a company, they feel an exceptional team of leaders runs Apple and they fully expect Apple to have a leadership role in PCs, tablets and smartphones for many years, even with Steve Jobs out of the picture.”
“But when I asked them what they actually fear about Apple, their answer was interesting,” Bajarin writes. “I had expected them to say things like Apple has great industrial design. Or their $117 billion cash position gives them a huge advantage over all competitors. Or even that since Apple owns their hardware, software and services, they can make them work together seamlessly, which also gives them a huge advantage over competitors.”
Bajarin writes, “But the consensus from those I talked to about what really scares them about Apple is the fact that Apple sees the future and then creates products that people want even if people do not know they want them. This has befuddled them for 15 years or since Steve Jobs came back in 1997 to rescue Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, um, about that:
Existential issue.
Cupertino, we might have a problem.
Bajarin writes, “But there is a second way Apple approaches the market that really strikes fear in them. Steve Jobs had what has often been called a ‘gut feel’ for what consumers wanted in a tech product and would envision them years before the products would even come out… While the rumors fly about Apple’s next major reinvention, which most likely will be the interactive TV experience, it would not surprise me if the folks at Apple have peered into their crystal ball and are working on something really cool in some area of technology none of us have even thought of today.”
MacDailyNews Take: Well, sans any conclusive evidence to date, we can certainly still hope that Steve Jobs’ crystal ball still works for “the folks at Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: What’s in John Browett’s crystal ball? A part-time-only retail staff rendered incapable of drawing full-time benefits who are barred from working overtime in severely understaffed stores?
Prior to his death, Walt Disney assembled a trusted team to lead The Walt Disney Company. What followed were three and a half decades of tumult, in-fighting, hostile takeover bids, and creative malaise.
Guess who finally saved Disney from its caretakers: Steve Jobs.
Related article:
Enderle: The king is dead. Can Samsung slay Apple and steal its crown? – August 18, 2012
True. I can’t get John Browett outta my mind either.
MDN, you are worried about nothing. Steve got his insight by doing LSD and doing walkabouts in India. Don’t you think Apple University is providing that same experience now for future Apple leaders? “As a condition of continued development with The Company you will be required to take three medically-monitored doses of LSD…….”
Browett’s not been a success- yet. He has to stick to the program- Steve’s DNA. Or, as the saying goes- “sometimes things that look like they’re falling apart are actually falling into place.” He’ll be gone if he screws up again. Or he’ll grow.
Jobs nearly destroyed Apple once. Then, it is Jobs to blame for being so assdumb as to let that Schmidt serve on their board and learn everything to be able to launch Android. Absolutely stupid and incredibly costly.
Stop kissing Jobs ass.
+1
Why the +1? I love SJ just as much as any other Apple user. But we often forget that Jobs was not only the source of some of Apple’s greatest successes, but also some of their most spectacular failures.
He said himself, “don’t spend time wondering what I would do.” Let this thing play out.
How many days did MDN hire John C Dvorak and Enderle to write the MDN takes?
So exactly how is the retail situation in any way related to product development?
Looking back prevents you from moving forward. The iconic Steve Jobs is not coming back. I doubt he would want Apple to look back at what they’ve done, instead of focusing on what they will do in the future.
Reading more detail about that staffing situation, it did not sound as bad as at first, and he apparently learned something. I’m willing to give him a little more time before I condemn him and his practices. I remain optimistic, if cautiously so.
Oh, I’ve definitely condemned him and his practices. Condemnation doesn’t have to mean termination, but he must work twice as hard to earn his reprieve.
Mdn takes are starting to sound quite pessimistic about apple leadership without jobs. There were just as many mistakes with jobs at helm. It’s the entire team that works and is still working. Love Jobs but Apples success will continue to shine well into the future.
Not a fair quip about saving Disney in my opinion. Toy Story came about in 1995, but the Disney renaissance was in full-swing by then, started by The Little Mermaid in 1989, then continuing with a string of hits like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, etc.
Hey MDN, if we wanted to listen to someone hate on Apple we’d visit another site, there are plenty of those.
Right on. MDN seems to be hating everything Apple. Even with today’s AAPL? Why would we listen to thier whining about Apple. Just look who they worship. Like Rush?
I swear MDN consist of only of two unhappy junior high students. But I did read they are now one of the top 50,000 websites. Imagine that.
You are a complete idiot. You should be very worried about Apple’s course.
I will continue to watch MacDailyNews even more closely than I have now that you have lists of concerns about Apple management. I have always recommended this site to people that are watching Apple and considering a stock purchase. That recommendation will not change as I now have to be on the watch to sell Apple stock based on your evaluations. I value your critical assessments, and will continue to do so. Thanks.
Sell your stock about 5 minutes into the next iPhone’s introduction, buy back the next morning.
That’s the historical trend. Apple has rarely been able to live up to the unreasonable expectations and rumours, so it dips right after the initial disappointment, but they usually bounce back the next day.
IF that’s Browett’s plan, he stole it from WalMart
MacDailyNews has always called ’em like they see ’em.
If they are unsure about Apple with Cook at the helm, they certainly have a right to be. There is more evidence that the company’s innovative days are behind it with Steve gone than evidence that Apple will continue to be a revolutionary company.
As long as MDN doesn’t start outright calling for his Cook’s head. It’s fine to complain that things aren’t quite right and need to be fixed, but until and unless they can suggest an actual replacement for Cook, any calls for the top exec’s resignation–by Apple’s most rabid supporters, no less–does more harm than good.
Promote from within Apple.
No question. But who? Or at least, who would be the candidates?
I want to see what the next iMac and Mac Pro specs are and what they look like before I judge where Apple is going. Tim Cook is the right man for Apple and will be until something goes really wrong, but I do not see that happening.
Browett was probably taken to the woodshed and hopefully has got his mind right. He needs to go back to relearn the Apple way of doing things.
“The first thing they told me is that they really respect Apple and find them to be very important to the industry in general.”
Of course they’re important to the industry. The industry has been using Apple to get their ideas for years. If there were no Apple, where would they get ideas from?!?
It’s a matter of personality. You either have a winner-spotting, must-succeed personality or you don’t. Steve could spot the winners and had success laced tenacity. He just wouldn’t give up till he got his way. These two personality traits apple needs to find in his replacement. Cook is a great businessanager no doubt, but he isn’t a tech innovation winner-spotter like steve. Few are.
What do Apple’s competitors fear?
For years they thrived by seeing what others have invented, licensing that technology, (or stealing it) and putting it in their products. They knew that what ever new hit thingy came along they would be able to take advantage of it and then pat themselves on the back for their “innovation.”
Then Apple came along, came up with insanely great ideas, refused to hand them over to the clone makers so they could profit from it, and then took their market share, and profit.
THAT is what scares the hell out of Apple’s competitors!
It’s really quite simple. Watch Start Trek. That’s what Apple is trying to give us.