"Jobs's greatest creation isn't any Apple product. It is Apple itself."

[MacRumors]

Daring Fireball's John Gruber has a nice reaction piece to the news that Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple. Jobs' resignation wasn't completely unexpected given his medical leave of absence, though it still comes as a surprise. Gruber suggests this is just the latest in a long planned transition:

The company itself is Apple-like. The same thought, care, and painstaking attention to detail that Steve Jobs brought to questions like "How should a computer work?", "How should a phone work?", "How should we buy music and apps in the digital age?" he also brought to the most important question: "How should a company that creates such things function?"

Jobs's greatest creation isn't any Apple product. It is Apple itself.

It was previously reported that Jobs had hired Yale School of Management Joel Podolny to help prepare for life after Jobs.

Steve Jobs hired dean of Yale School of Management Joel Podolny to run the Apple University, an internal group also featuring business professors and Harvard veterans that are writing a series of case studies to prepare employees for the life at Apple after Jobs. These case studies focus on Apples recent business decisions and internal culture, they are exclusive to employees and taught by top executives like Tim Cook and Ron Johnson.

Tim Cook is now CEO of Apple at the recommendation of Jobs.

Article Link: "Jobs's greatest creation isn't any Apple product. It is Apple itself."

 

[MBP13]

Wow! I never thought of that before..

After all, there would be no Apple Inc. had Steve not returned to Apple in its most troubled times.

 

[TheNerdyNurse]

I'd have to say I agree. Steve trippled Apple's stock at a time when businesses are going under like it ain't nobodies business. His genius is in his business savvy and his increidible ability to make myself and other lust after over-price gadgets!

 

[alust2013]

I'm going to agree as well. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of their business model, Apple is an extremely successful company, mostly due to Jobs' way of thinking and management.

 

[illegalprelude]

I'd have to say I agree. Steve trippled Apple's stock at a time when businesses are going under like it ain't nobodies business. His genius is in his business savvy and his increidible ability to make myself and other lust after over-price gadgets!

If the products are over priced, how come nobody could ever touch the iPods and iPads and even the iPhone in price?

It's because Steve didn't create products, he created extensions of yourself in a digital form. Your Toshiba laptop is a throwaway but people care about their MacBooks. An iPhone is a device that changes a lot of people's life style and how they game and do business. A Droid is just your next phone. Steve Jobs is a true visionary.

 

[firestarter]

His genius is in his business savvy and his increidible ability to make myself and other lust after over-price gadgets!

There doesn't seem to be any other alternate model out there for American tech companies.

HP has just realised that it's a waste of time trying to make a business out of zero-margin commodity hardware. The skill of Jobs/Apple has been to raise margins to the extent that they can support aspirational products.

 

[FloatingBones]

Mr. Gruber's comments about the fractal design of Apple are decisive and thought-provoking. In healthy structure, actions in the small always reflect the actions of the large. Apple is not seen at any one level; it is seen at all levels.

Brilliant.

 

[WiiDSmoker]

Your Toshiba laptop is a throwaway but people care about their MacBooks. An iPhone is a device that changes a lot of people's life style and how they game and do business. A Droid is just your next phone. .

Don't act this way. Everyone here gets a Macbook/iPad/iPhone/iPod and replaces it all the time. Every consumer item is a throw away item. Don't be jaded.

 

[Tilpots]

Don't act this way. Everyone here gets a Macbook/iPad/iPhone/iPod and replaces it all the time. Every consumer item is a throw away item. Don't be jaded.

Apple has created a value and devotion for their products rarely, if ever, seen in modern consumers. The products aren't "forever" pieces, but the brand loyalty seems to be. That's value, that's rare, and it's unlike other consumer tech products of today.

 

[robertneville77]

Don't act this way. Everyone here gets a Macbook/iPad/iPhone/iPod and replaces it all the time. Every consumer item is a throw away item. Don't be jaded.

I have to disagree. If I saw a PC being thrown away, I probably wouldn't even think twice. But if I saw a Mac, even an old beige one, being thrown away, something inside of me would die.

Heck, I saved an old Power Mac 7500 from being thrown away. Works like a champ.

 

[Macman45]

Steve Jobs

Is really quite unique....I have never known a CEO who has been so inextricably linked withe the creative model of the business he has so successfully run.

Whilst we have all had our gripes from time to time, I wish him well, and can only guess that he is once again in failing health.

Tim Cook would seem to be an adequate if uncharismatic replacement.

I'm sure there will be a big "Blip" in the share price today, but things will settle down again fairly quickly I think.

 

[vitzr]

Is really quite unique....I have never known a CEO who has been so inextricably linked withe the creative model of the business he has so successfully run.

History reveals many men have achieved greatness as a CEO. The reason Jobs stands out in recent times, is due to the high profile nature of technology, his unique brand of narcissism, the cult like following he created by emulating Jerry Garcia, and Americans obsession with money.

Tim Cook would seem to be an adequate if uncharismatic replacement.

The statement about Mr. Cook is somewhat inaccurate. If one checks into his vast accomplishments at Apple, what stands out more as the difference between Tim & Steve is what Tim has not done.

He has not taken to bragging & stretching the truth. He doesn't make claims that their products are "Magical" since he believes in science and facts. The list of his strengths goes on and on. Adequate he's not, Tim Cook is simply brilliant, well adjusted, measured and all business.

As a huge volume shareholder, Tim Cook brings me great confidence.

 

[FloatingBones]

Is really quite unique....I have never known a CEO who has been so inextricably linked withe the creative model of the business he has so successfully run.

Thomas J Watson of IBM may be a likely candidate. Just ignore that stuff that he did with "knockout boxes" at NCR.

He doesn't make claims that their products are "Magical" since he believes in science and facts.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

--Arthur C. Clarke

 

[AIP5]

The title of this article post says it all. I mean literally. I wish I could +1 it a couple of hundred times.

It's so true... I just hope that his ultimate creation, Apple, will outlast him and continue to be the great company that it now is.

 

[SandynJosh]

Most businesses that are strong in the high-tech consumer market struggle to have margins anywhere close to Apple's margins. It's a real credit to what Jobs has done to make the money that fuels the innovation to build risky new products the world didn't know it needed until Apple showed them it was necessary, and useful, and fun to use.

It takes a lot of guts to break into new markets and create new genres of products. Most companies cannot afford such risk, nor would the stockholders or board of directors stand for it.

Kudos to you, Steve! You have nerves of steel and balls of granite.

 

[wackymacky]

I'm a little concerned that without Steve at the helm In a couple of years Apple will be a bit like where Microsoft is now: A supertanker lost and adrift in the IT ocean.

 

[SandynJosh]

History reveals many men have achieved greatness as a CEO. The reason Jobs stands out in recent times, is due to the high profile nature of technology, his unique brand of narcissism, the cult like following he created by emulating Jerry Garcia, and Americans obsession with money.
The statement about Mr. Cook is somewhat inaccurate. If one checks into his vast accomplishments at Apple, what stands out more as the difference between Tim & Steve is what Tim has not done.

He has not taken to bragging & stretching the truth. He doesn't make claims that their products are "Magical" since he believes in science and facts. The list of his strengths goes on and on. Adequate he's not, Tim Cook is simply brilliant, well adjusted, measured and all business.

As a huge volume shareholder, Tim Cook brings me great confidence.

How you describe Tim Cook scares me. Steve was a dreamer and a risk taker and willing to take Apple to where no bean counter could see possible. Who is going to challenge Apple to be as bold as Steve has done? If apple is going to coast safely into the future, it will lose the vitality and daring it now has. Steve had the ability to generate a reality distortion field around himself and then make that reality real. Apple also needs a charismatic spokesperson to articulate the company product message a la Steve Jobs.

I think Tim will do a great job as CEO, but Steve will need to be replaced with more then one person when it's all said and done.

And P.S. the iPad is "magical," it's not bragging & stretching the truth to say so.

 

[the8thark]

Thanks for posting this M-R staff. One of the few good rumour articles on this site. Short but to the point and the headline is not misleading in anyways.

I give credit were credit is due.
So for this one article well done.

 

[CommodityFetish]

Charisma ---> Institution

So Apple's cult begins its transition from the Charismatic Leader stage into the Institutional stage. I see they are already at work writing the sacred texts about how things were done when He was still with us.

Thank you, Max Weber:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charismatic_authority

 

[Daffodil]

So Apple's cult begins its transition from the Charismatic Leader stage into the Institutional stage. I see they are already at work writing the sacred texts about how things were done when He was still with us.

Thank you, Max Weber:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charismatic_authority

Fanboys will be fanboys?

 

[BC2009]

I loved that article from Gruber when I read it last night. I for one am choosing to be a bit more optimistic about Steve's health -- or at least a bit a more hopeful. As I posted previously, I think Steve probably felt that Tim deserved the title of CEO for all he had been doing for Apple and so he stepped aside and made room for his protege. I pray Steve is in good health, and if not that he returns to good health.

As far as timing goes, I think that Steve may have set a date and if he had not returned from leave by that date that he had decided it best to officially hand the reins to Tim Cook who has certainly earned the right to steer the company. From a stock perspective this is best to do before you launch a series of new products and go into the holiday season. People can take the stock hit now, and then view Apple's annual sales boom that comes with the new iPhone launch and this year that will be followed by the holiday shopping season.

I'm hoping Steve's new role as chairman will be similar to the role he took as advisor to Gil Amelio years ago and that maybe we'll even see Steve introduced by Tim Cook to introduce products or features from time to time.

Anyway, I'm praying that Steve's health issues relate to this move more from a "life perspective" angle rather than from a "beginning of the end" angle. I'd hate to see cancer get anybody -- its not the best way to go out. I'd like to see Steve in his 90s one day showing his great-grandkids an iPad 1 and telling them a story and having them say "you have to use your hands? that's like a kids toy" (to paraphrase Back to the Future II).

With your health and with your new role, good luck Steve -- our prayers are with you.

 

[jonnysods]

Steve and his marketing and design guys have come up with one of the most iconic brands in the world.

 

[*LTD*]

If the products are over priced, how come nobody could ever touch the iPods and iPads and even the iPhone in price?

It's because Steve didn't create products, he created extensions of yourself in a digital form. Your Toshiba laptop is a throwaway but people care about their MacBooks. An iPhone is a device that changes a lot of people's life style and how they game and do business. A Droid is just your next phone. Steve Jobs is a true visionary.

How true this is.

There is a certain specialness to Apple products. They look and feel as if the people responsible for their design actually gave a damn about what they were doing. That sort of special touch is absent from a lot of tech out there. Let's hop Apple continues in this vein.

 

[CodeJingle]

I'm sure Jobs can afford to replace a few more organs himself, and heck if Apple sees Jobs as being so important maybe they can write off the replacement of all the replaceable organs as a worthwhile business expense. He'd be the billion dollar man, though with human organs instead of bionic ones.

 

[njsa04playa]

steve jobs is a genius and i wish the best of health to him