{"id":3931,"date":"2011-08-30T09:56:30","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T14:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=3931"},"modified":"2011-09-06T09:49:26","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T14:49:26","slug":"voice-of-objectivity-apples-not-changing-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/column\/voo\/voice-of-objectivity-apples-not-changing-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice of Objectivity: Apple’s Not Changing Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1985, the board of Apple Computer asked co-founder Steve Jobs to resign. That decision proved so catastrophic, that 12 years later, on the verge of bankruptcy, the company brought Jobs back as CEO. He took the struggling company he helped build and turned it into the most valuable corporation in the world, as Apple Inc.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s leaving again<\/a>, and on his own terms this time. His medical condition seems to have prompted him to inform the board that he can no longer fulfill his duties as CEO. As the man responsible for a seemingly endless series of successful and industry-changing products (the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the App Store), the first instinct is to assume that the end of the Jobs era is going to be a major change. I wouldn\u2019t be too sure though.<\/p>\n

Jobs has been a powerful force at Apple for over a decade, true, but that also means he\u2019s had the time to create the team who can build on what he\u2019s created. Tim Cook, Apple\u2019s new CEO, is Jobs\u2019s hand-picked successor. He\u2019ll work with essentially the same team he did twice before when serving as interim CEO while Jobs underwent medical treatment. Cook isn\u2019t likely to be the guy who wants to change the path his predecessor set the company on, because he worked as hard as anyone to help build that vision in the first place.<\/p>\n

More importantly, Apple is no longer the nimble little upstart it was in the 1970s. It\u2019s become the biggest company on Earth, and a ship that large takes a long time to turn. Apple\u2019s product plans for the next two years are likely fixed already, with supply chain deals already worked out (largely by one COO Tim Cook, as it happens). Even if Cook is looking to significantly change the direction of the company, there\u2019s simply no way he can do it quickly at this point.<\/p>\n

There are concerns that Cook may lack the vision or salesmanship that were so important to Jobs\u2019s success at Apple. Perhaps that\u2019s true, or perhaps Cook never had a moment to shine in areas that Jobs handled so well already. Either way, it\u2019s not yet time to be too concerned about those factors for one simple reason. Jobs isn\u2019t actually leaving Apple. His health may prevent him from taking the hands-on, day-to-day role of CEO, but his resignation letter also asked the board to appoint him its chairman. Jobs is not the sort to sit back and watch when he can help the company he clearly loves. His new role will certainly be different, but it will just as certainly be involved. I don\u2019t see Apple\u2019s vision of the future changing while Jobs is still there.<\/p>\n

The day of the post-Jobs era will eventually come, perhaps sooner than we\u2019d like to see<\/a>. But I don\u2019t believe this resignation is the beginning of it. The Jobs era is going to last well beyond the man\u2019s tenure as CEO. He\u2019s left an incredible mark on this company, so there\u2019s time left for \u201cone more thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1985, the board of Apple Computer asked co-founder Steve Jobs to resign. That decision proved so catastrophic, that 12 years later, on the verge of bankruptcy, the company brought Jobs back as CEO. He took the struggling company he helped build and turned it into the most valuable corporation in the world, as Apple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,905,70],"tags":[1185,1217],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3931"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3936,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3931\/revisions\/3936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}