Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO

[BuckeyeRed27]

He will be the Chairman of the Board and will be replaced by current COO Tim Cook.

Pretty big news given the company. I think Apple has bulit itself into enough of a force and have a nice blue print on what not to do from the last time Jobs left that they will be able to survive without him in charge.

[JaxRed]

Hope it's not health related but assume it is. It will be interesting to see what happens with Apple. The man is a legend

[oneupper]

Jobs has been on borrowed time for several years now. Shame. Truly a visionary.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by oneupper

Jobs has been on borrowed time for several years now. Shame. Truly a visionary.

Yeah -- I'd always assumed that Jobs would work until the day he died at Apple, if he's resigning and asking them to implement a succession plan to put his handpicked choice as CEO, I can only assume he's been told that he doesn't have much time left.

It's crazy to think how much Jobs has changed the world we live in, even just since his return to Apple in the 1990s. He took a computer company that needed a cash infusion from Microsoft just to stay afloat and transformed it into a consumer electronics company so influential that it dictates change in the marketplace.

He's an American icon, and the heart and soul of that company. Definitely someone the world will miss.

[dabvu2498]

Interesting to consider that a larger portion of Jobs' wealth came from Pixar than Apple.

Of course, as many kids as I see walking around with ipads, ipod touches, and iphones, watching Pixar movies...

[MWM]

One of the great business leaders in our history.

I saw there was a sell-off yesterday on Apple's stock. I'd probably do the same if I owned it. I doubt the impact he had himself can truly be measured.

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by MWM

One of the great business leaders in our history.

I saw there was a sell-off yesterday on Apple's stock. I'd probably do the same if I owned it. I doubt the impact he had himself can truly be measured.

Steve Jobbs was the greatest marketer that I have ever seen. He made products that you needed to have. He made the Ipod the MP3 device you needed. He made the Iphone the cell phone you wanted to have. He made the ipad a device that you wanted .

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by MWM

One of the great business leaders in our history.

I saw there was a sell-off yesterday on Apple's stock. I'd probably do the same if I owned it. I doubt the impact he had himself can truly be measured.

Jobs brought two things to Apple's table that I doubt anyone can ever really replace:

1. A single-minded desire to push the future in the direction he felt it needed to go, and
2. A willingness to kill off any project -- even one that had already seen millions of dollars in R&D and countless manpower hours -- if he felt it didn't live up to Apple's standards

There are stories out of Apple that have Jobs pulling the plug on new products that were presented to him in finished form, ready to go off for mass production, because he decided that there was no market for it or that it didn't work simply enough to be useful to regular people.

All it takes is one or two dud products and people start to adapt a "wait and see attitude" with new stuff from a company. Apple's long chain of incredibly successful devices leads people to line up for things like iPhones and iPads before even holding or using one. It's next to impossible to build that kind of product loyalty or "if they build it, it must be good" attitude for most companies.

Really, that's the biggest challenge for this new CEO. He's got Jobs' personal blessing, but he isn't Jobs -- will he have the onions to be the gatekeeper of quality that Jobs was (a guy who would look at a bunch of project VPs and experts and say "This is D work" on a finished product that they'd spent years working on), and will people listen to him the way they listened to Jobs on such matters?

Apple's place in the consumer electronics market depends on the answer to that question.

[oneupper]

Jobs is a cool geek, which is something that is very hard to pull off. (Ask Bill Gates).
That helped make the products cool, for geeks and non-geeks (the majority) alike.

He's a real tough act to follow.

[IslandRed]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Jobs brought two things to Apple's table that I doubt anyone can ever really replace:

1. A single-minded desire to push the future in the direction he felt it needed to go, and
2. A willingness to kill off any project -- even one that had already seen millions of dollars in R&D and countless manpower hours -- if he felt it didn't live up to Apple's standards

There are stories out of Apple that have Jobs pulling the plug on new products that were presented to him in finished form, ready to go off for mass production, because he decided that there was no market for it or that it didn't work simply enough to be useful to regular people.

All it takes is one or two dud products and people start to adapt a "wait and see attitude" with new stuff from a company. Apple's long chain of incredibly successful devices leads people to line up for things like iPhones and iPads before even holding or using one. It's next to impossible to build that kind of product loyalty or "if they build it, it must be good" attitude for most companies.

Really, that's the biggest challenge for this new CEO. He's got Jobs' personal blessing, but he isn't Jobs -- will he have the onions to be the gatekeeper of quality that Jobs was (a guy who would look at a bunch of project VPs and experts and say "This is D work" on a finished product that they'd spent years working on), and will people listen to him the way they listened to Jobs on such matters?

Apple's place in the consumer electronics market depends on the answer to that question.

And even at that, having the stones to kill projects that don't measure up is only useful if you're almost always right.

Knowing what people want before we know we want it is a rare gift.

[redsfandan]

Originally Posted by MWM

One of the great business leaders in our history.

I saw there was a sell-off yesterday on Apple's stock. I'd probably do the same if I owned it. I doubt the impact he had himself can truly be measured.

Down today as well, although only slightly. Still, if the stock price slides I'd consider buying. He's left the company in really good shape.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by redsfandan

Down today as well, although only slightly. Still, if the stock price slides I'd consider buying. He's left the company in really good shape.

They've probably got a tech roadmap that's Jobs approved for the next 3-5 years -- and they've still got Jonathan Ive in charge of their industrial design division, so you can bet the Apple trend towards smaller, thinner, more usable products is going nowhere anytime soon.

The real test for Apple is going to be the "what's next" question after that roadmap ends -- once everyone is carrying around iPad tablets, what does Apple do to push the industry forward again?

[cincyinco]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

Steve Jobbs was the greatest marketer that I have ever seen. He made products that you needed to have. He made the Ipod the MP3 device you needed. He made the Iphone the cell phone you wanted to have. He made the ipad a device that you wanted .

Speak for yourself.. Never wanted a mac, never wanted an Ipod, Iphone, or ipad.. I loathe apples proprietary ideology. Not trying to take anything away from Steve Jobs, but his products never inspired any feeling of "want" on this end.

[oneupper]

Not much has been said -yet- about the fact that Tim Cook, the new CEO, is gay.

[Spazzrico]

Is there any reason there should be?