August is known as a pretty unruffled month for technology related news . Much of the western human beings is on holiday , so it ’s usually the quiet before the storm that leads into the deucedly fussy vacation fourth .
This year was the exclusion . In a blank of two weeks , Google buy Motorola ’s mobility patronage , which includes set - top box and handsets . HP announced they werespinning off their PC businessand leaving the smartphone and media pad of paper business ( after shipping the TouchPad for only 47 days ) . Oh , and Apple ’s CEO Steve Jobs stepped down from the post , discover Tim Cook as his successor .
That last scrap of news institutionalize the media skin for implications and impact . After all , formal wisdom dictates that Apple and Steve Jobs are one inseparable and inexorably tied entity and Apple ’s success over the last decennary can only be attributed to the symbiotic compounding of the two .
Let me be clear : No one can overvalue the character of Steve Jobs in the awing transmutation that Apple has undergone since his proceeds to the late ’ 90s . The iPod , iPhone , iPad and the full reinvigoration of the Mac occurred under his tenure . His victorious return to Apple more than a decade after he was fired from the troupe he founded , his stint as interim CEO , and his final espousal of the full title are truly the makings of a byplay legend that will live on and be taught for years .
Just as a multiplication told their child of momentous issue such as seeing the Beatles at Shea Stadium , I differentiate my children of assist Steve ’s legendary Macworld keynotes and product foundation and of my conversations with him . Yes , the life and times of Steve Jobs are the thing that caption are made of . In this Trygve Lie Apple ’s greatest challenge ahead . The power to struggle legends .
“ I will learn you … Until you are ready . To fight fable . ” – Ambassador Kosh , to Captain Sheridan
Despite all that Steve Jobs accomplished , it ’s critical to note that there is far more to Apple than any one soul … even if that individual is Steve Jobs . It ’s wild-eyed to recollect of him toiling away in his garage at all hours of the day and night to create the product that would be the legendary “ one more thing . ” Then after burning the midnight oil , he ’d hop in the car and drive up to San Francisco and show it to an enthusiastic audience and world .
To do so is to leave the thousands of Apple employee who plan , built , marketed and sell those products as well . Names like Jonathan I ve , Phil Schiller , Scott Forstall , Tim Cook , Eddy Cue , Greg Joswiak and many others too legion to mention all play key roles in create and hand over Apple products to the universe . To the best of my cognition , none of them are going anywhere anytime before long .
To those that are concerned with a raw CEO at the helm , it should be noted that Tim Cook is not an foreigner brought in by a headhunting firm to put back Steve Jobs , but is a long - tenure employee who has not only shown expertness in operation but has taken the CEO position three times during farewell of absence by Steve Jobs . He has effectively overseen Apple ’s day - to - mean solar day business since the start of this year . In short , Tim Cook is a tried and tested person filling this part , and under his leading the company has fancy some of its most profitable quarters and large ontogeny in evaluation .
Perhaps the single biggest misunderstanding Apple has made in the last decade was tying the success of the society too tightly with the charismatic image that is Steve Jobs and downplaying the part of others . In recent years , Apple has work hard to showcase those others and make their contributions more wide known .
In the oddment , however , it is not Steve Jobs ’s charisma and even brilliance that drove consumer to buy Apple products . In fact , the bulk of consumers have never seen or get word Mr. Jobs verbalize or gift ; they know only of his legend . It is in this travail that Apple needs to focus : In many areas , Apple ’s challenge is not fighting rival , it ’s fight the fable of Steve Jobs and focusing the consumer not on any one someone but rather on Apple , Inc.
The departure of Steve as CEO marks an interesting historic moment , but to be well-defined , Steve has n’t quite left the construction yet . He remains Apple ’s chairman of the board and his impact internally within Apple and externally on product that are delivered to market place will be felt for many years to number .
Tim Cook will win Steve Jobs , but no one can ever exchange him . Apple’sproduct introductions will be differentand we ’ll probably see more face of Apple than ever before . But that wo n’t count all that much . Apple will be judged — as it has been for the last decennium — on its power to raise the Browning automatic rifle on its own products , to introduce unexampled devices and services that enamour the heart and minds of the consumer .
That is the straight legacy of Steve Jobs : The direction teams he go away behind and the imprint of his ethos , if not his press , that will drive Apple in the future .
[ Michael Gartenberg is an psychoanalyst and farsighted - sentence Mac substance abuser who covers the world of the interconnected consumer forGartner . The legal opinion expressed are his own . ]
