[In the 10 years since Steve resigned, Apple has, indeed, lost the innovation and become a company that makes appliances. There are no professional level Macs under $4-5k. The new units (MB and iMacs) run on PHONE chips. Nothing is upgradeable or even fixable. Apple is a sad remnant of what it was, as far as I’m concerned. I still love Mac, the iPhone and the Watch, but I’m using a 12 yr old Mac Pro because I can’t afford $4-5k for a new one. I refuse to use a trashcan Mac. I am also not interested in a non upgradeable iMac that runs on a PHONE processor. So, here I sit, with old equipment because Apple has stopped making real computers. I am disappointed in Apple as a user, but they do a good job paying the stockholders, so yay? That is really what has happened. Apple is all about stock prices, which making appliances keeps HIGH, not being the best computer company in the world. Hence the name change from Apple Computer, to just Apple. Sigh. – Aug 2021]
So, Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple. It is the end of an era. I know as long as Steve is alive, he’ll be there, laying plans for more innovations and surprises. But when he finally succumbs to the various illnesses he has, I think that will be the end of Apple as we know it.
Yes, Tim Cook has been Steve’s right hand man for years. Yes, Jonathan Ive is the brilliant designer who took Steve’s ideas and made them real. BUT. Neither of these guys are the ones who THINK UP the mad schemes in the first place. Tim Cook has a reputation as a quiet, rather staid man. That does not make me think of INNOVATION. It makes me think of Microsoft.
Which is where Apple will end up when Steve’s ideas have been plumbed and there’s no more Steve to come up with a computer that “looks like a flower” (iMac circa 2002) or an iPod, iPhone, iPad… You get the picture. Yes, I’m sure Steve’s got plenty of innovations in channel and will keep it that way as long as he is able. But when he’s gone, he’s gone.
It makes me a bit sad to know that I will most likely see Apple grind slowly to a halt and become a useless behemoth like Microsoft. But I’m pretty sure it’ll happen.
I just hope it happens slowly enough that by the time Apple is dead, I won’t care because I’ll be too old to use a computer anyway.
In the meantime, Apple is still my brand and I wouldn’t dream of using anything else.
Viva la Apple! And long live Steve Jobs! :)
I, too, feel like apple will slowly become rotten due to the absence of Steve’s innovation. We use MACs at work. Totally love it, but wish there was a right click. ;)