Mr. Jobs is taking a well-deserved breather from Apple. We here at CrunchGear hope he gets well soon, and think he’s doing the right thing: few jobs are more important than one’s own health, and certainly not being the CEO of a company that makes computers and portable music devices. And while Steve is taking care of Steve, Apple can take care of Apple. I think Steve’s respite will be a good thing for Apple in the long run.
- As mercenary as it may sound, now that Steve’s out of the picture (even if just temporarily), we can all stop wondering what Apple will be like with Steve out of the picture. Just the threat of a Steve-less Apple was enough to cause conniptions in some people. Now we can move past the vague fears and deal with reality. It’s kind of like jumping off the high dive at the local pool for the first time: once you step over that precipice, you stop worrying about all the stuff you previously thought about, and worry about the very real things directly below you.
- MacBooks and iPods and iPhones aren’t going anywhere. Certainly Steve left his imprint on many things throughout the company, but his departure doesn’t mean that their current line of wildly successful products is going to simply disappear.
- The Apple design aesthetic isn’t doled out in person by Steve, and Steve isn’t the only creative visionary at Cupertino. There are lots of bright, passionate, creative people at Apple. Sexy computers will still be made. A strong focus on quality user interfaces will still prevail.
- Competition doesn’t get a leg up as a result of this. Apple is still strongly in the #2 spot when it comes to computers, behind Microsoft but ahead of Linux. Apple will still maintain an enormous lead in the PMP market with iPods. And the iPhone is still a strong member of the smartphone triumvirate, along with Android and the soon-to-be-released Palm Pre.
- Jobs is a figurehead and fans have created a cult of personality. To the average computer user, however, Steve Jobs is at best known as “another rich computer CEO” like Bill Gates and, at worst, not known at all. He saved the Apple of the late 1990s but that Apple is strong and well-managed. He isn’t being ousted in a fit of rage: he’s leaving because he’s sick.
Apple can now focus on the cult of Apple, and not the cult of Steve.
It’s easy to love and respect what he has done for Apple but a confluence of events - the rise of the MP3, a relative economic boom, and a pitch-perfect sense of the cool - put Apple in its current vaunted position. Jobs is instrumental in that but he is not the instrument of that.
Well, I suppose the 10% drop that this has paved a path to buying opportunities. Question is: how low will it go?
the readers don’t care if cruchgear thinks it’s a good idea or not, the man is sick. it’s not like your commentary makes any type of case for or against it.
Amen.
But why do I sense that your gracious, level-headed thoughts will be a lost island in the sea of Apple/SJ conspiracy theorists (which, of course, have already been seen before I saw this post).
Say it again. Amen.
I really believe Apple will be fine without Steve, mainly because the vision, roadmap and culture he created won’t be changed anytime soon.
Just wrote up more @ http://www.ianmikutel.com/index/2009/1/14/3-reaons-you-shouldnt-sell-your-apple-stock-due-to-steve-job.html if anyone is interested, would love to hear your comments.
Great article, Scott.
“smartphone triumvirate, along with Android and the soon-to-be-released Palm Pre”
The amount of Kool-aid you drink! BlackBerry owns 50% of smartphone market in the US.
I can’t believe we’re having such a big discussion about something you agree isn’t a big deal. TechCrunch posted almost immediately, followed by Mashable ( http://mashable.com/2009/01/14/steve-jobs-leave-of-absence/ ) and then the community at Tumblr got their Steve crazy in my dashboard ( http://tumblelog.marco.org/70523468 & http://darknessfalls.tumblr.com/post/70524566 )
I’m sure people are waiting to see if the same thing happens to Apple that happened the first time Steve departed. You’re right - his return to Apple in the 90’s is what saved the Company. Let’s just hope that the next person to take the helm has what Steve refers to as his ‘vision thing’ skill.
Steve’s resume: http://tinyurl.com/74b74
Robin Ogden
http://www.firedupcareers.com
But why do I sense that your gracious, level-headed thoughts will be a lost island in the sea of Apple/SJ conspiracy theorists (which, of course, have already been seen before I saw this post).
http://tinyurl.com/4rdhmc
According to medical research, only 1-4% of people are stille alive 5 years after a pancreatic cancer has been detected.
For more detailed information about this terrible and deadly form of cancer : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancreas_cancer
Steve Jobs announced his pancreatic cancer in August 2004.
I’m afraid he won’t never be back…
Pierre -
Thankfully, Steve had a much rarer form of pancreatic cancer, as detailed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroendocrine_tumor
That’s not to say its not very serious, but this form of the cancer is much more survivable.
- Bill
All i know is i like this guy, i hope he will be good again. pancreatic cancer is probably the worse type of cancer :( . For the apple i dont know really, problem is apple doing so much stuff on edges like ipods. Stuff that nobody really thinks it will worth to try. I think thats what makes Steve Jobs a big ceo and i hope there is somebody in apple that can continue this, if apple is like walmart i’d probably say they will go good, but without him it is tough.
First and foremost why doesnt Crunchgear get off of Apple’s sack for a minute. Every day its apple apple apple. Yes I am a PC and I dont use apple. I dont have anything against it but GAWD CG staff is on apples jock and its annoying! =) oh and Jobs is done for. Unfortunately so is my stock in NVIDIA!
Yeah I would normally agree with you because all the Apple worship annoys me too. But this is pretty big news, and as the focus of all that incessant speculation has come to head here, this story is totally legit.
And frankly, there is way more thought in the post above than in any of the other stories I read on traditional news sites. All they do is pull from the AP at this point.
And who is Scott Merrill??
I am! :)
CrunchGear writes on stuff that we feel is of interest to the gadget-loving technology enthusiasts. Sometimes we hit the mark for a large segment of our readership, and sometimes we don’t. Your feedback helps us make choices as to where we put our focus.
As for sucking at the Apple teat, I’ll have you know that I use Linux exclusively. :)
It’s all about site visits.
I found it difficult to take this article seriously after the “smartphone triumvirate” was defined as including Android and the Palm Pre.
The absence of the market leader in this analysis commands about as much confidence in competence as accepting car buying advice from a guy who insists that the world’s top three brands are GM, Tesla and Kia Motors.
i totally disagree. jobs was the john lennon of that company. this is like watching lennon leave. please remember what apple was like when scully was in and the others. this was a man with vision and balls. without him, i seriously seriously worry. one guy at the top making the right calls is gone.
During the 90s, Apple didn’t really prove they could do well without him. They were doing really poorly… Until he came back.
I guess that’s why so many people are worried about the idea of Apple without Steve.
Pierre…Wikipedia:
“The prognosis for pancreatic cancer is usually very grim; Jobs, however, stated that he had a rare, far less aggressive type known as islet cell neuroendocrine tumor.[50][51] After initially resisting the idea of conventional medical intervention and embarking on a special diet to thwart the disease, Jobs underwent in July 2004 a pancreaticoduodenectomy (or “Whipple procedure”) that successfully removed the tumor.[52][53][54] Jobs apparently did not require nor receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy.”
Sorry Bill, but having seen this skinny Steve Jobs I do not buy that.
Hope he will be better soon, really (*) we will see this summer…
(*) I personaly survived a very rare form of cancer that occurred when I was 25 years old : 9 occurrences (me included) documented in medical research worldwide, the surgeon explained me than 6 over 8 people died within 6 month, I’m still here 20 years after… but who knows ?
Come on. A company does not come to a screeching halt when someone leaves. Even an important someone. It takes years to feel the pain of losing great talent.
It’s clear he stoked the fire. It’s certainly not guaranteed that anyone can carry his torch.
Hey Scott;
Steve being out of Apple for some indeterminate amount of time is what it is, and all the fear and conniptions won’t change that.
It is certainly true that the engineering and creativity displayed in Apple products is not the output of Steve’s mind, but Steve does supply one EXTREMELY HARD to replace skill that to date has not been displayed by any other leader at Apple: dictatorial cohesive oversight and drive.
I was a software developer at Apple during the rudderless post-jobs years, from 92 to 97, and there were undoubtedly just as many creative and talented people there then as there are there now, yet some how Apple was simply unable to produce any meaningful products, and started its downward spiral to obscurity prior to his return.
While I personally abhor his ego-maniacal, hyper-secretive, contentious, and capricious style of management, it has been extremely effective and ultimately needed to keep the “herd of cats” that is Apple engineering and marketing united and focused towards delivering products and message points that “make a difference”…and that will be very hard to replace.
The question is when the cats away will the mice play, or stay on track?
-avi
I am constantly amazed at the power of the Apple press machine. For almost 10 years now, the entire tech media has worked overtime to convince us all that Steve Jobs is the most incredible visionary the tech world has ever seen. Repeatedly the tech press has stopped just short of claiming that every product coming out of Apple was personally designed by Steve Jobs, and everything from their marketing campaign to their lowest-level board design has been attributed to the genius of the Great Steve.
Now he is apparently dying, and the entire tech press dose an abrupt 180, and suddenly he is just a meaningless figurehead, leading a company of brilliant people who won’t even slow down with his departure. All of a sudden, the man we have been told is the true genius of our age, is just some guy in a suit, who’s departure means nothing.
I suppose the idea is that if people were stupid enough to buy that Steve Jobs was the sole person behind everything Apple did, then they will be stupid enough to believe whatever you tell them now. I, however, can’t help but feel you can’t have it both ways. Either he is the da Vinci of the computer world, at which point Apple is doomed to suffer the same fate they did last time he left the company OR he is nothing but a used car salesman and mouthpiece of the company, at which point I think a lot of people need to reexamine a lot of what they have said about him, and Apple, over the past decade.
Really, I just wonder why you work so damned hard to try and get out whatever message the Apple home office tells you to disseminate?
Agreeed! Completely! I just dont understand why the press feels the need to join the apple cult. Is it because that news about apple appeals to the gizmo crowd or is it because of the race for news and sensationlaism?
No, honestly I think the main reason for all the Apple media love, is that the sort of people so narcissistic that they are drawn to giving their opinion as a career, are exactly the sort of people who fall for Apple’s sales pitch that it takes a special, creative, smarter than average, more tasteful sort of person to appreciate their product.
Thus, you have an entire class of people who already thought they had more valid opinions than everyone else, thus their job telling everyone else what they should think, having this belief reinforced by a company that tells them that if they are really one of the special people, then they would buy the special people computer. And so, you get a lifestyle brand perpetuating itself in the media, because every time they sing the praises of the product, it gives them a warm fuzzy feeling, because it reinforces how truly enlightened they think they are.
In a perverse way, the more their readers call them on it, the more it reinforces their love of Apple, because it just highlights how much distance there is between them, and the boring little people banging away at spreadsheets on their bland ‘Windoze’ machines, while they live their imagined glamorous Apple media life.
I think this could be a test to see how the market reacts. I hope Steve is not as sick as some make him out to be, but Apple shouldn’t really just depend on Steve. There are a lot of guys who put their life behind everything Apple has produced, so Apple doesn’t end with Steve.
He is a once in a lifetime leader for Apple but he has left a great legacy behind, and Apple fans should just come down. Just like the investors…
I think it will be a lot better for apple this time than when he left the first time. The reason being that every one now knows without exception that the Steve jobs is right 99% of the time with his decisions. He left apple the first time because in reality his fellows executives didn’t believe he knew what he was doing. Now we all know otherwise.
If you were to go through all the decisions he has made since he has been back at apple you will see a consistent strategy in place. Steve jobs is “consistent” in his appraisal of risk and in his execution of ideas. I’m sure the rest of apple completely understand the Steve jobs philosophy and this time believe he is right. That’s why apple will be left unchanged with his departure. Apple will be fine in my opinion.
“Jobs is a figurehead and fans have created a cult of personality.”
Jobs is a figure head, but the cult was created by Apple’s PR machine and the press. And the wallstreet lemmings, of course buy into the 10 word answer. I do not think consumers buy ipod, iphones and laptops because of steve.
Amongst computer geeks and apple fan boys I think the opinions are evenly split on Jobs with very few voices in the middle.
FYI - CNBC & Bloomberg, etc. are now reporting that SJ will actually be having his pancreas REMOVED.
This almost certainly means the cancer came back.
It also makes him an instant diabetic, and chances of long term survival are drastically reduced…
I’m definitely saddened for SJ and his family. Best wishes for you.
I love Apple. I love Steve and his pancreas. I wish him all the best.