Larry Ellison Hints at Bleak Future For Apple Without Steve Jobs

Funny, Ellison steps down from the board in 2002, right around the time that Apple's second coming started in earnest.

Reminds me of when Michael Dell started pontificating a similar rhetoric back in the day.

Coming from the guy who is one bad weekend away from turning into that Macafee guy that's pretty rich.

Completely different situation. Back then the people who fired Jobs hated his guts.

This time, Jobs trusted most (if not all) the people on the exec team.

Wow his explanation was so scientific!

Yup it's happening. Just look at the state of iOS 7 and the cheap plastic rumoured iPhones. Steve Jobs would have never allowed this.

Steve probably never cared about the company---just his legacy. Apple's demise is plausibly all part of his plans of immortalization.

Just as long as we dont go back into numbering schemes i think we'll be fine.

iPad 5220!
iPhone IIvi!
Mac Pro 9600!

Whether you like his opinion or not, you do kinda have to respect it. Even though it was so late in the 90s and early in the 2000s when he was on Apple's board, he did see a lot more than the public does of what goes on in the company.

I'm tired of the "Steve would've never let this happen" thing. But on the other hand, if the board is worried there hasn't been enough innovation since Steve has been gone, you have to wonder what's going on in the product pipeline, especially since Steve set Apple up for a few years.

Was the Retina display MacBook Pro the last thing in Steve's pipeline? Did the company change course? Is Tim Cook not acting as Steve had wished?

But needless to say, not a single person in the public knows what's going on behind closed doors and can't answer any of these questions I just stated. We'll just have to wait and see.

Larry Ellison is a clueless arrogant prick. That is the number 1 reason i left Oracle - i was sick of making him rich while our bonuses were cut every year. Take his prediction with a grain of salt. He is clueless. I don't know what Steve saw in him. I think he just liked competing with him.

Did anyone else re-read that quote a few times to see if they missed something?

Unfortunately it's true. It's not just Steve's impact, but the entire concept of drive for the company. Everything they do is so interdependent on their overall theme of delivering a good product, while using the bare minimum hardware. That's such a delicate method, that if they fail to do that correctly, they will lose all hope. And of course Jony Ive taking over iOS and sh***ing all over the design doesn't help things. He got rid of what everyone loved about iOS, and now even though it looks more modern, it is a cluster fk of white, and the device is harder to use, and takes more time. It's not just getting used to things, it just isn't as intuitive. You can't even tell what half of the icons are while in apps anymore because they're just blank icons with white outlines.

Mjmar said:

Wow his explanation was so scientific!

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Yea, especially that air graph he drew with his finger. Brilliant!

eddystrasser said:

Steve probably never cared about the company---just his legacy. Apple's demise is plausibly all part of his plans of immortalization.

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That's a joke, right?

Cue the Apple fans in denial.

Of course the last time Steve left the company he hadn't been running it in the first place and clearly didn't pick the executive team left behind.

While Apple's future may or may not be bleak, what happened the last time isn't a valid comparison.

Bathplug said:

Yup it's happening. Just look at the state of iOS 7 and the cheap plastic rumoured iPhones. Steve Jobs would have never allowed this.

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NID....surprised it took 7 posts before we saw it.

Bathplug said:

Yup it's happening. Just look at the state of iOS 7 and the cheap plastic rumoured iPhones. Steve Jobs would have never allowed this.

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iOS 7 is gorgeous (a few dubious choices for the stock app icons notwithstanding), and it has worked beautifully since Beta 3 or 4, too.

Bathplug said:

Yup it's happening. Just look at the state of iOS 7 and the cheap plastic rumoured iPhones. Steve Jobs would have never allowed this.

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Steve Jobs released cheap plastic iPods, cheap plastic MacBooks.

Bathplug said:

Yup it's happening. Just look at the state of iOS 7 and the cheap plastic rumoured iPhones. Steve Jobs would have never allowed this.

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stop being such a cliche.

iOS 7 is solid, whether you're afraid of change or not. and lower cost iPhones for emerging markets (read: poor, and kids) is exactly what they need. jobs did the same exact thing with the iPod. hell for all you know he planned it.

VanillaCracker said:

Unfortunately it's true. It's not just Steve's impact, but the entire concept of drive for the company. Everything they do is so interdependent on their overall theme of delivering a good product, while using the bare minimum hardware. That's such a delicate method, that if they fail to do that correctly, they will lose all hope. And of course Jony Ive taking over iOS and sh***ing all over the design doesn't help things. He got rid of what everyone loved about iOS, and now even though it looks more modern, it is a cluster fk of white, and the device is harder to use, and takes more time. It's not just getting used to things, it just isn't as intuitive. You can't even tell what half of the icons are while in apps anymore because they're just blank icons with white outlines.

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Speak for yourself.

impulse462 said:

Completely different situation. Back then the people who fired Jobs hated his guts.

This time, Jobs trusted most (if not all) the people on the exec team.

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yep. and trained them, and hand-picked his successor, and designed an internal teaching academy.

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eddystrasser said:

Steve probably never cared about the company---just his legacy. Apple's demise is plausibly all part of his plans of immortalization.

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absurd.

VanillaCracker said:

Unfortunately it's true. It's not just Steve's impact, but the entire concept of drive for the company. Everything they do is so interdependent on their overall theme of delivering a good product, while using the bare minimum hardware. That's such a delicate method, that if they fail to do that correctly, they will lose all hope. And of course Jony Ive taking over iOS and sh***ing all over the design doesn't help things. He got rid of what everyone loved about iOS, and now even though it looks more modern, it is a cluster fk of white, and the device is harder to use, and takes more time. It's not just getting used to things, it just isn't as intuitive. You can't even tell what half of the icons are while in apps anymore because they're just blank icons with white outlines.

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Thank you! I completely agree and it seems that nobody around here can this through their heads.

Acidsplat said:

But on the other hand, if the board is worried there hasn't been enough innovation since Steve has been gone, you have to wonder what's going on

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there's absolutely no reason to believe the board is worried. you're referencing an unsubstantiated rumor from Fox. let that sink in.