There was a time when I was convinced that the end of Steve Jobs ’s term of office as Apple ’s chief operating officer would be the mo I cashed in my tech journalism credentials and walked away .
Because Jobs is that rare matter : a visionary who excelled at both line of work and showmanship . It sometimes seemed to me as though he single - handedly kept the engineering line of business exciting and passionate , especially in a human beings that had more and more become possessed with specifications and market share . While some — my colleagues include — have objurgate Jobs ’s insistence on refer to Apple ’s products as “ magical , ” I always thought of it as Jobs in a rare struggle to retrieve the right word for describing that unspeakable feeling of using an Apple product .
Tim Cook ( left ) and Steve Jobs at a 2010 jam league
Tim Cook (left) and Steve Jobs at a 2010 press conference
In terms of gossamer mien , I ’m not sure anybody will ever match Apple ’s co - beginner . I enjoyed see Jobs ’s many keynotes at Macworld Expo and Apple ’s Worldwide Developers Conference , first as a technology professional and interested consumer then later as a diary keeper . And even in the man ’s rare missteps — the iMac ’s hockey puck mouse , the buttonless iPod shuffle — I never lost the feeling that Apple was in good hired man .
In March 2006 , less than a calendar month after I started blogging forMacworld , Iwrote a postresponding to aSydney Morning Heraldpiece on what would go on to Apple after Jobs . I remember being in a San Diego hotel way while typecast it up , then sitting back and thinking that an Apple without Steve Jobs at the top just would n’t be the Apple that I launch so intriguing . I could n’t imagine being interested in handle technology when its most — and possiblyonly — captivating figure tread out of the calcium light .
But when intelligence broke of Jobs ’s resignation late on Wednesday , something strange happened : I have emotional .
That ’s not to say I’mgladthat Jobs has stepped down from the CEO position , but I do think this is one of Apple ’s majuscule opportunities . The ship’s company is poised for its biggest passage in more than a decade — and this is a company that has made a lot of transitions : from PowerPC to Intel , from computer party to consumer products house , from the edge of failure to the mellow realms of achiever .
What I ’m turn on about is what comes next . Apple under Tim Cook will undeniably take care a mountain like Apple under Steve Jobs , at least for the foreseeable future . But at some item , it will change . A lot of people assume that change inevitably mean a slide back to the dire pass Apple faced in the ’ 90s ; that ’s a picayune cockamamy , but it ’s an understandable fear . After all , when a ship’s company is on top of the world , where is there to go but down ?
Well , how about still up ? Or laterally ? Crazy public lecture , I have it away . But , severely as it is for me to trust , it ’s been more than five age since I wrote that piece about Apple after Jobs . An astounding amount has deepen in that fourth dimension ; not only is the Apple of today not the Apple of the ’ 90s or the ’ LXXX , it ’s also not the Apple of 2006 . It seems oddly appropriate that , as the technology domain face a post - PC era , Apple is facing a post - Jobs world ; but , toparaphraseMacworldcontributor Michael Gartenberg , “ post Jobs ” does n’t think of “ sans Jobs . ”
Asmy friend John Gruber wrote , Jobs ’s legacy is the ship’s company he serve create . In hindsight , it ’s not intemperate to see the chess moves he made to insure that Apple would continue to be successful after his time as chief operating officer : the billions in cash reticence , the assembly of a solid executive squad , the farseeing - term product route map . In his letter of the alphabet of resignation , Jobs touch to the sequence plan that would see Cook taking over for him — it’d be laughable to remember that program finish at “ name Tim Cook as CEO . ”
Given that Apple itself is Jobs ’s great creation , do you think he ’d want it to stay on stable , to keep dogmatically following “ what would Steve do ” ? No : Apple ask to change , to accommodate , to — in the words ofone of its most iconic advertizing — keep pushing the human race forward . Thoseare the economic value that Jobs instilled in Apple ’s employees and etch in the company ’s cornerstone , and that ’s why I ’m emotional about its time to come .
Tim Cook may not be the next Steve Jobs , but his line is n’t “ New Steve Jobs , ” it ’s “ chief executive police officer ” : He ’s there to keep the caller run smoothly , so that the thou of Apple employees can reduce on making great production . He ’s there to do whathe ’s unspoiled at and hunt the business , just like Jonathan I ve is there to do whathe’sgood at and design outstanding hardware . But most of all , he ’s there tolet Apple be Apple .
[ Senior associate editor Dan Moren will be look forward to Apple products for age to come . ]
