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But you completely miss it here, too "It needs to find other ways to sell itself and its products, apart from just relying on the inherent desire that Apple fans feel for anything that comes out of the company’s Cupertino headquarters."
Apple has wide and growing appeal - hence it's market share gains, and huge year-over-year growth - it's not simply selling to it's Fanboys.
I was with you until you showed your ignorance of what makes Apple Apple at the end.
Maybe study some more and then give it another go.
We're far from the time where, for instance, it was clear Michael Eisner "had to go" from Disney. There's a lot Steve can still bring to Apple, if he wants to and can. Let's not shove him out the door a minute sooner than necessary.
• COO Tim Cook: There is extraordinary breadth and depth and tenure among the Apple executive team, and they lead 35,000 employees that I would call wicked smart - and that's in all areas of the company from engineering to marketing to operations and sales and all the rest. And the values of our company are extremely well entrenched. We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that's not changing.
We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.
We believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.
And frankly, we don't settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we're wrong and the courage to change. And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well. And I would just reiterate a point Peter made in his opening comments that I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.
You should insure IT managers that you will no more let them alone in the desert, but conduce them on the way to a simpler, much more efficient information management system.
The entreprise culture you describe, if it is deeply implemented, will insure Apple a long, long life, fare beyond ours (I am 53).
Anyway I wish Steve Jobs all the best, may he live many many years, many thanks to him for what he has brought to the world in his field of action.
In the short term, the company is likely to suffer and might even go through some troubled times. At the end of the day, a very leader focused company is almost losing its leader.
On the other hand, if it can survive this period (it has the right assets to do so), the company is likely to be better off in the long term by creating a more sustainable management mechanism.
Interesting times for Apple.
Tell me again why Apple wants to be like Sony?
Great comments. Take it one step further, though: in this economy what Apple needs is excellent operations. Meaning logistics, inventory, parts, streamlining everything in the process to cut costs and increase margins. Being disciplined and being lean. That's why Tim Cook is a perfect choice right now. He gets this. He lives this. He is the best of the best at Operations. He will increase the balance sheet while Apple products sell themselves.
All Apple need concern itself with is making sure they don't get sloppy. No way that will happen with Tim at the helm.
FireWire is on it's way out to make room for USB 3. It will be a feature to sell the next batch of notebooks, meanwhile it's omission will save space and money.
You may not like all that Apple leaves out certain useful feature, but you don't know the reasons that go into those decisions. You make it sound like Steve Jobs is an irrational dictator.
All Apple mice have been two-button for years. They only LOOK like a single button. And the software accommodated a right-click for years before that. Most people I know didn't miss the floppy disk, they only thought they would. I was one of those with a 1st-generation iMac who bought a floppy drive. I used it a grand total of three times before giving it away. I agree with you about Firewire (it's vastly preferable to USB 2.0) but Apple's sense for what features to exclude and which innovations to include have usually been more right than not.
Apple was hurting. Apple II sales--the bread and butter of the company--were plummeting. Apple III sales were non existent due to quality issues. Lisa sales were non-existent due to price. Macintosh sales, while okay, were well below projections. Steve had his view of the Macintosh and that was it.
After Steve left, Apple started listening to their customers. You got machines like the Mac Plus, where you could actually update the memory yourself without owning a soldering iron. You got the Macintosh II, with slots, external color displays, etc. You got SCSI interfaces for attaching hard disks, scanners, etc.
So, from a Macintosh perspective, I could see Apple being better off without Steve. It's happened before.
Perhaps there is something to Apple not building their products with everyone's input that is a critical driver for their success to putting superior products in the marketplace. And it certainly is having a positive swing that shows in their revenues.
I cannot remember a more recent example of a company that (at least anecdotally) has households with multiple devices and making repeat purchases that the way Apple prices and distributes its products. The upgrade path that they set consumers on (while many don't like it) is really impressive.
Look at the PC world with all the compatibility problems, the lack of backwards compatibility, the hours passed configuring, installing, de-installing drivers, etc.
You don't buy a Ferrari to complain afterwards that the trunk is too small, you buy it for what it is. Tuning is for differentiating cheap mass-products and people who consider a computer as a hobby. Nothing against that, but when I power-up my computer, I want to use it for a purpose and not because I enjoy tweaking system parameters.
That's the reason I changed to a Mac.
Thank you Steve for not listening to every nerd out there. I hope you or your successors will stick to that policy and continue to deliver great products.
That is why Apple will continue to succeed for many moons to come.
I guessed you missed the hundreds of millions of dollars in iPod advertising, or the award-winning "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" ads that are so dominant that Microsoft's entire 2009 campaign is based on it. If it was just Steve preaching to the fanboys, Apple's sales and market share wouldn't have doubled (or whatever multiple it actually is) since Steve's return a decade ago.
For the most part, their products generally work out of the box the way they're supposed so and in a way that feels comfortable to use. Compare that to the competition, and THAT'S why Apple's been so successful.
Apple, Jobs' brainchild (conceived with the other Steve, Wozniak), will be 33 in April. If it had been his bodychild, it'd've left home, perhaps started a family. A decoupling of sorts does therefore make sense. Why not "move upstairs" -- assume the post of chairman, for instance?
Toyin, England.
I agree that Apple need to grow up... quit being manipulated so much by the "rise and fall" of sentiment attached to Steve Jobs.
However, part of what makes Apple so fun to be involved with (as a consumer and stockholder) is that it is more "personal" than the typical "BIG" business.
Apple is my Team! Sorta like The Denver Broncos and John Elway.
Steve Jobs is the Quarterback! I love rooting for Apple and I want Apple to ultimately squash Microsoft in the Super Bowl.
If Steve Jobs fades/retires away to the "front office"... give me another Quarterback that can inspire me, excite me, and give me a reason to stay a fanatical follower and "fan" of my Team--Apple!
One thing I like about him is his toughness in making the unpopular decision. He held fast to the one-button mouse as the standard for a very long time. It forced developers to consider that basic users would only work with the single button and write their software with that in mind. All power users would go out and get multi-button mice, so developers would consign advanced features to the right button.
Also, he made people wait for months until third-party apps could be loaded on the iPhone. This showed people how great the quality of the iPhone was. When they finally got to add third-party apps, people could see that crashes, etc. are rightly due to the apps and not the phone itself.
Before I could say that the company would be better off without him or not, I'd have to see some of the ideas he rejected and projects he killed to see whether he was wise or foolish.
The undenyable truth is that Apple will eventually have to continue without the guidance of Steve, and there will be a period of uncertainty afterwards, but there is no need for the stock to take a huge hit, as market growth continues to set records.
Awesome. (I'd para-phrase that to: "As soon as you start to grow up, you start to die")
That was the best quote I've read in a long time. I can't find it anywhere else on Google either. I thought maybe it was a line from somewhere.
I can't agree more.
I hope Apple stays foolish and stays hungry.
Long live the Cult of the Mac. =P
It is hard to imagine who could have had the vision, and decisiveness to turn the company around. But SJ has been there a long time, the values are ingrained, and they'll continue. Moreover SJ's uncompromising attitude is a mixed blessing--he's not always right you know.
On net, there will be pluses and minuses. On balance I think losing SJ will be a negative for Apple, but not a huge one. The company he rebuilt remains.
Mainly, I just want the guy to be well because he's a human being and the planet is a more interesting place with him around.