E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Sakchai Lalit / AP
Apple fans miss Steve Jobs already, but Apple has to hope they think the company is bigger than him.
The death of technology titan Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple, has rattled shareholders and fanboys alike, inspiring comparisons to revolutionary figures such as Thomas Edison and stirring up widespread sadness combined with awe for all he accomplished during his life.
And while his compatriots and even his archrivals in the tech sphere expressed that the world would not be the same without this “hero,” as General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt called him, experts agree that Apple will continue to thrive without Jobs, at least in the short term.
“He was a legacy kind of guy,” said Peter Misek, managing director and senior technology analyst at Jefferies and Company. “I’m not going to say that anyone at Apple is Steve Jobs, because they’re not. (But) he always looks forward, and I would suspect that he has a very robust product road map for the next two to three years.”
In fact, “he probably had a roadmap of the next 10 years worked out,” he added.
While news of Jobs’ death pushed shares of Apple lower Thursday, analysts agreed that in the short term, Apple could still be Apple without its founder, despite his enormous individual influence on the company’s innovative products and marketing strategy.
One key aspect is that Jobs knew his time was limited due to his illness, and thus was able to prepare for the day when he would eventually have to step down. For example, the company had already tested Tim Cook as an interim CEO when Jobs stepped down temporarily in 2009. Cook has since had plenty of time to ease into his role. That's opposed to the type of situation when a chief executive is “hit by the proverbial beer truck” and the company is blindsided, according to Harry Kraemer, a professor of management and strategy at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
“I think they are as prepared as they could have been for what happened,” said Kraemer. Cook "was able to test his sea legs, and it went very well.”
The question does remain whether Jobs’ stamp of individualism and innovation will live on in Apple’s culture. Since Jobs’ return in the late 1990s to the company he helped found, he was instrumental in turning Apple around by scrapping its failing product lineup and spearheading the launches of game-changers like the iPod and the iPhone, not to mention his creation of an entirely new business model for digital music sales.
“As much of a genius as he was, no one individual can maintain something like that at that size,” said Kraemer. Shareholders and consumers alike will be wondering whether Apple can continue to deliver without him, but “the company is obviously much larger and much more stable than it was then. The probability of things falling apart, I think, is very low,” he said.
At the very least, Apple is in a very lucrative financial position, despite its recent patent troubles with Samsung (“This tablet war is far from over,” says Misek), and the rising dominance of Google’s Android platform in the mobile phone sector. In August, Apple briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil as the most valuable company in the entire United States. It has enjoyed record sales throughout the recession, growing its revenue by 82 percent and doubling its net profit in the third quarter of 2011 to hit $7.31 billion.
The tepid response to the iPhone 4S was unusual for Apple, but it’s not necessarily any kind of indicator of what’s to come in the post-Jobs era.
“We believe (Jobs’) impact will still be felt in the decades to come,” wrote Stern Agee analyst Shaw Wu in a research note. “In our view, iCloud has just gotten started and the iPhone and iPad are still relatively early in their adoption curve.”
Click on the video below for a look at Jobs' legacy from CNBC's Tyler Mathisen.
Related stories:
Steve Jobs taught us it's OK to fail
Jobs' legacy: Ease and elegance
Leave a Comment:
One picture shows some Asian guy bowing to him. What the hell is up with that. Dude, its just an iPhone. You would think this was like the second coming or something. Give it a rest!!! I wonder what these people would do if something happened to Zuckerberg or whome ever they are worshipping at the moment. Many people are going to hell on this planet. I wonder if the iPhone gets reception there. hahahahaha
Sir
without Steve there would not have been an Iphone of any kind...we should ALL do what the Asian guy did...he was a genius
??????what else ??????they create...they are enlighten...they have GENIUS....they are innovators...too bad that such great technology has to be wasted on the masses that do understand or that can not think their way out of a paper bag////????
Yea without Jobs there would be no Iphone. It would be called something else and probably better ha ha.
hopefully you're one of them
Regardless of how you truly feel about Steve Jobs, there is no doubt he left his mark on our world. Show some respect, starfox.
Maybe God will show him more charity then Jobs did for the poor. Still won't buy an overpriced PC wrapped up to look like a Mac, even in remembrance.
theCavalier, how do you know what he did for the poor? Besides giving free computers to schools that otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford them, anyway. And what have you done for the poor? And why does this "the poor" thing always come up anyway, when we talk about wealthy people? Most do give, they just do so privately. In any event, even if he did nothing for the poor, at least he and Woz started up the computer revolution, so you could complain about him and his "overpriced PC," decades later. What a legacy you appear to have.
Perhaps he had a secret that was just not meant to be revealed.
At least, after JOBS, Apple might start considering enabling ADOBE FLASH content on its gizmos, considering JOBS always denigrated FLASH.
If you knew ANYTHING about why Jobs denigrated FLASH, then you wouldn't be making such a stupid statement.
FLASH will never be on an Apple device because it ruins the experience, from battery life to processor.
If Adobe made a product that wasn't so bad, then it would be on the iOS platform. Jobs gave them plenty of time to fix all the Flash problems and they didn't.
I hope NOT
The beauty of Apple no viruses...Adobe is trash and everyone with half a brain know this
<<Adobe is trash>>
Um, you realize that people that use macs tend to be creative types and Adobe photoshop is the main program they use? You clearly don't know anything at all.
And if Apple has no viruses then why did apple create a virus scan.
Masturbating nerds are so fascinating!
Flash is an outdated and bloated technology on it's last legs. You see less and less of it on the Web every day.
Without Jobs Apple languished for years. It wasn't until his return that they turned a nifty profit and actually improved. He was innovative and ruthless. He knew what he wanted and how to get. Nobody at Apple has that same spirit, tenacity, or dedication to the product.
It would be foolish to make a statement such as "...Even without Jobs, Apple still shines, analysts say." Give it 3 years and then decide for yourself.
A good example is the iPhone 4s. This was, by far, the worst release of the iPhone to date. Every feature listed in the new product has existed on the mobile market for some time.
Only time will tell...
Having said that Steve Jobs was also one of my heros. I loved what he did and how he inspired the digital age. I wish his family peace and good wishes in what must be a turbulent time.
Worse release of the iPhone to date for you...not the millions and billions of others that will be lined up to get it.
If you are bitching about not getting your stupid teardrop shape (which wouldn't even work for landscape mode) and a few more millimeters of screen size, then you really need to recheck your priorities.
You're getting iOS 5 and we all know the software makes the device. On top of that you are getting the best processor on the market, a better camera and video recorder, Siri and all sorts of other features.
But yeah, keep bitching about things no one else cares about.
BTW, the difference between the first gen and second gen was nothing either.
Steve Jobs was brilliant. I don't, however, see Apple thriving after his passing. The recent iphone launch case in point. Unless one of his kids is equally as brilliant and can bring the same visionary havoc to the company - it will slip into the monotony of all large corporations.
We have a bumble in the tech sector. lets look at the profit and revenue. 6 billion profit for 300 billion stock. Apple might be a good company but does that make sense?
Ok if you think that its going to grow its profit to say 10% of 300 billion. That means 30 billion of profit. Is that possible? how long? Ok lets just pretend the at profit doubles every year. 6 goes to 12 billion. THen we need to double it again. 24 billion. Is that likely?
Geez. where could you put 300 billion lol.
Hopefully the 401ks are not invested in this bubble.
American Fascists hate Jobs as they do all innovators. They demonstrate what can be accomplished without all the pride and hate they want to visit on all of us. Jobs was no saint but he stands head and shoulders above the CEO slime that our Fascists worship.
how long will Apple shine after Steve...Apple will never have the Vision or innovation that Steve had...he was a true genius and enlighten soul...he gave alot...and their are very few visionaries left in the World...he created...and too think, he was a College drop out....maybe we should look at the way Schools and Colleges teach...God Bless the Jobs family...
Clearly you don't know anything about other cultures. In Asia it is customary for them to bow (instead of a handshake) at the beginning of a business meeting. This has nothing to do with worshiping Jobs. Just an Asian "handshake" so to speak.
I know a lot about the Asian culture they also bow when a person of honor entered...check your facts dummy you would not know anything about honor because you are not an honorable man...
People like you, intelligence and enlightenment are lost on...you will never understand genius...because you work inside a very small box..and probably have a lot of BRAIN DAMAGE...in other words keep working inside that box..it is your comfort zone...
Where are you???Jason???
Knock off calling others dummy and the name calling. You're just trying to pick a fight, which makes you really boring.
Of course Apple will be fine. Why? The engineers, designers, and programmers who actually made everything that Jobs is credited with didn't die yesterday.... just the figure head who presents them to the public. Thats not to say Jobs didn't do great things at Apple, but he gets wayy too much credit for Apple's products.... and the people who actually built them don't get enough (if any).
Apple lost a hell of a leader, but its technical side will be fine. I know a lot of people want to point to the recent Iphone announcement flop as a sign Apple is in trouble without Jobs, but thats just a flash in the pan. Theres not a whole lot more that can be done with the Iphone at this point, and any new version at this point was going to be a disappointment.
Apple will not be the same from today or the Furture...Steve planned 20 yrs in the future...the heads of Apple now probably can not plan 20 minutes from now...Apple has a huge worm...
Jobs has actually made a thing for apple for probably 30 years. i think they'll be ok since he really didn't do anything anyway. good riddance, too. perhaps we will see some balanced reporting on apple now that the king of tech spin croaked. any idea why they put in another cancer patient for steer the company?
"Everyone hyperventilating, repeat after me: I am not defined by the products I buy. My computer is not a part of my identity. My computer is a tool. And like all tools, it's only useful if I make it useful. A brand is not a lifestyle. I don't owe gratitude to a billionaire I helped create. Steve Jobs was a business man who charged exhorbitantly for his products. He didn't do us any favors. He didn't make us. We made him." - Maddox
slow clap.
He is a great man.
He fathered a child and refused to accept responsibility for her. He let the mother and the child go on welfare - and he was a millionaire at the time . He finally accepted responsibility for her later in his life but not before showing his true colors. He is a despicable human being to me. He was arrogant, rude, self righteous and consumed with himself.
He also may be still alive today if he would not have decided to ignore medical advice - at the time he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. - The physicians recommended strongly that surgery be performed immediately for this type of cancer.
But no, true to his arrogant, California ways, he decided to heal himself with a special "diet". How Californian of him. So many like him now feel they know more about infectious diseases than modern science and now they have a major outbreak of vaccine preventable diseases in that state.
Yes, if he would have had the surgery right away, instead of wasting precious time on a special diet, he may have been cured, but his arrogance and "i know better than everyone else attitude" delayed that essential procedure for 6 months. More than enough time for an aggressive cancer to spread.
It is ironic to me how a man of technology, a "visionary', could turn his back on the best science of the day, at one of the best medical centers in the world and put himself in jeopardy to this aggressive cancer.
Maybe he wanted to die. We'll never know.
wow. never knew that about the guy. what a dirt bag. all the money in the world wont make up for you being a bad father. good riddance.
The world has lost a visionary Steve Jobs one of the sources of light in the world after firefly technology in Apple and IPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes - that is the wonderful humanity productions
So, sending work to China and the pollution resulting from those military complexes, the suicides and the pollution of the airwaves for every dummy that has an insatiable need to watch a movie, is an accomplishment that merits a bow we need to emulate? Sorry, but this was all done without forethought and selfishly for profit and glory. Each to his or her own interpretation of an accomplishment.
I wish Steve Jobs would have worked in a call center, the one that I worked in, on an Apple contract. Grey building wall; grey cubicle walls; grey carpeted floors, with grey duct tape for repairs; grey MAC computers that didn't function very well; grey broken chairs, held together with grey duct tape; ill-fitting headsets; uncertainty every day about where you would sit at, how long your job would last...
Mr. Jobs's business and techie mind is so awesome, and it has made him become billionair.
Today, India has expanded the humanity and humility from Jobs's techie to make a 35 dollars touch pad for their own people, and the pad is made in India. I am really proud of them. Hope that this poor nation continues to flourish...
"Some Asian guy bowing to Steven Jobs" was probably Japanese, and it's a sign of respect. I like that custom and I think we should all bow to Steven Jobs, because he was a really brilliant man.
All of the comments of Adobe (Flash) vs. Apple resulting in "Adobe Sux" are completely invalid. Macromedia Inc. created Flash (the plugin support for the multi-layered .SWF file (and plugin), driven by the actionscript language).
Adobe ACQUIRED Macromedia and their products, including Flash.
Reading several of the above comments makes one stop to think: How can some people write comments filled with so much hatred and hurtfulness? One possible answer may be due to anonymity. If so, is that a major flaw of technology, or is that a major flaw in ourselves that technology simply lets us observe? Either way, I believe it is a terrible shame.
I bet in a couple years Apple is filing for bankruptcy or selling out.
Samsung provided the interface for their i Phone from what I've heard and have their own version out on the market now. (For less I might add)
Steve Jobs was good at bundling and marketing other people's ideas without giving them any credit for them.
Personally, I think Bill Gates did more to change the world with Windows which is still the most popular OS around the globe!
They said the same thing about Microsoft when it got to the point where continued fast growth would require it to gobble up the world. Apple's in a position to continue to be the gorilla in its sector, but its growth rate is almost guaranteed to drop radically over the next decade. Of course, for today's analysts, long-term means six months.
I think Apple will continue to do well, especially for the next few years. But it's never going to be the same without Jobs, everyone knows this.