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Jonathan Ive in Line to Succeed Steve Jobs?

I heard it was going to be Clarkson.


(That's Jeremy Clarkson to my fellow Yanks mired back in the motherland)






He'd certainly make sure that Macs were fast.
 
Well, if we could find someone who combines Jack Welch, Richard Branson, and Larry Ellison, maybe we'd have something.
 
MLeepson said:
Ive is not a trained or schooled in programming or marketing. He's an artist.
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Neither is Steve. In the early days Woz did all of the computer stuff. Job just knew what Woz should be working on, and then how to present the end product in RDF kind of way.

Don't get me wrong, I think Jobs is a magnificent leader for Apple. He has vision (too much for the likes of NBC to handle, anyway), charisma, passion, and a need for perfection. After watching and reading every single interview with Ives I can find (there aren't many of them) I believe he has all of these. The only thing lacking is his RDF skills. Give him time.

He may be a very private person, but doing a Keynote once or twice a year wouldn't necessarily interfere with his home life, and shouldn't.
 
Shades of Blue said:
Steve Jobs is the REASON that made me LOVE Apple & its products. 🙂

I love this man very very much, and my feelings towards him are sincere.

I never cared about celebrities, but If I have the chance to meet a celebrity, I would choose my hero Mr. Jobs.

Apple without Steve, is like a planet with no water.

It would really sadden me to see him retire and leave the industry, and I hope that day never comes.
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Please tell me this post is a joke. In any event, a responsible corporation has an obligation to have in place a reasonable plan of succession, regardless of the age or relative health of its senior leadership.
 
flopticalcube said:
Unfortunately both are required to lead a successful company these days. Some people can hide incompetence but charisma is easy to spot and impossible to fake so we end up with CEO's that look competent and charismatic but are truly incompetent. Jobs was a rare duck indeed.
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I would relegate charisma even further afield and add competence to it.

What is important is a single vision in regards the expression of the product. Additionally, competence is required as a base condition of any good operation, and the presentation at the press event doesn't really matter as long as no obvious mistakes are made.

It's the vision and the guidance given to the engineering team that matters, and the quality of the team members themselves. That situation can be replicated by someone like Ive even if he doesn't have the "charisma" to pull off a public stevenote.
 
I think Jobs' success at Apple is a result of at least four abilities:

1. He understands the business side of a major company...he can talk to Wall Street analysts and lead investor conference calls, and not sound like an idiot.
2. He is a master of marketing...call it "charisma" or "Reality distortion field" or whatever, he can get people excited
3. He has a reasonable understanding of technical matters...he can keynote a developer's conference and not sound like an idiot
4. He has a great sense of style and design.

Ive has #4 down. Maybe he also has #2. But you can't lead a technology company that way. Unless he can prove that he understands #1 and #3, he'd be a better candidate to lead Gucci or DKNY.
 
Ive will need a new challenge

Years ago I wondered what would happen once Ive got bored of designing computers.
He'd designed the iMac (twice), the PowerMac (twice) and the iBook (twice). For a product designer it must be really difficult to come up with revolutionary designs for products you've already revolutionarily designed once or twice already. I felt it was inevitable that Ive would eventually move on so he could design something else for a change. I'm sure there are countless other product areas out there with CEOs desperate for his talents.
Fortunately Apple had a way of keeping Ive around and that was the iPod and latterly the Apple TV and iPhone, although I strongly suspect that Ive was a major driving force behind these new directions.
Ive will need new challenges, whether they be new product ranges or more personal challenges. I guess it depends on where he's reached internally. He may be ready to have a less hands on role.
 
He will do Better Than Steve I Hope

I hope Jony does a better job at running Apple than Steve. I think Jobs has done a wonderful job, but I hope Jony will give Apple more product options and different lines of machines than Apple currently has. Hopefully Jobs will announce his stepping down at MWSF 08 and that Ives will take over affective immediately.

Then Ives will get on stage and show us a redesigned MacBook Pro with a super 17" model that has the dual 2.8 GHz Penryn chip and a 512 MB GFX card and dual HDD slots.
 
flopticalcube said:
Unfortunately both are required to lead a successful company these days. Some people can hide incompetence but charisma is easy to spot and impossible to fake so we end up with CEO's that look competent and charismatic but are truly incompetent. Jobs was a rare duck indeed.
Click to expand...

When I see charisma, I immediately think of the robotic speech given by Cingular's big man during Steve Jobs intro of the iPhone. His "no eye contact" and "by the 3x5 card notes" he so elegantly read from lets me know just where my money is going this May when I get my iPhone 🙂
 
why all the fuss?

Guys guys guys, why all the fuss about this new CEO stuff! Even if Johnathan comes, it will still be like Steven hasen't left! Take a look at the resemblance he looks so much like Steve!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jonathan_ive.jpg
Although... i must pin point theres one Steve, and there will never be another! 😀 Heck i dont care about resemblance... Steve dont leave!
 
I'm not sure who the guy is but whoever was the first person to publicly demonstrate "Time Machine" in a keynote, I thought, did a really good job. He was quite young though. I have no idea about him and if he would be a good CEO but he speaks publicly very well.

PS. Ive for CEO!!!
 
Regardless of whoever replaces Jobs, he'll still remain on the board of directors. He'll still probably stay and help out with the transition of one exec to another.
 
Of course he isn't as charismatic as Mr. Jobs, but still he seems quite charismatic from the interview I just watched in YouTube. Obviously there is none like Jobs, but probably the best successor will be him; lets just hope it isn't in the near future, I hope Apple can count on both for a long while.

-Victor
 
Job has well balls

I cannot think of a case where an computer/OS vendor tossed out it OS. and well sort of (BSD/Next) started over again....

That took balls... MSFT could do the same, they have $$$$$$$$$... $^N cash and could suck off it's own UNIX flavor (hell they did it once...) and they would not be good news for linux, apple, or MSFT Certified dorks --would have to return to Wal-Mart...

I think Jobs will be at apple for sometime (he's got health issues) but if apple "goes" for it, now and in the future like Jobs did, it will just keep growing...

Uzi
 
This seems to be more of an issue when Steve plans on leaving Apple. I doubt that will happen any time soon.
 
MLeepson said:
Regardless of whoever replaces Jobs, he'll still remain on the board of directors. He'll still probably stay and help out with the transition of one exec to another.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. Steve has great public speaking skills, while Ive may not. But this doesn't mean that he couldn't lead his company/team to do just as good of a job as Steve has done. It would be diffrent if Steve left, and didn't give the next CEO any help or input; but since Steve and Ive, communicate with each other on a daily basis, i think Ive wouldn't hesitate to give Steve a call to get some input from him, if need be.
 
It would be nice to see a Briton at the head of Apple 😀
Seriously though, Apple's heart is rooted in design, that is the factor that sets them apart from the rest of the market.
So Ive as CEO would put Apple in exactly the right line. Jobs has another 10-15 years in him as CEO and I can't see him completely leaving Apple ever again, look what happened last time.
It's that 'look what happened before' that many, including myself, believe that makes Jobs the man he is, it's the worry that makes him 'pushy', and striving to do better than ANYONE else.
He will mould someone, and at this moment in time, it seems likely that it will be Ive. Don't be surprised if we see more of Ive at keynotes, that'll be Keynote Speeches 101 😀

Best Apple Quote ever, really fits my above description of Jobs: "We're one or two steps ahead, and moving faster than they are" Encapsulates apple in one sentence. period.
 
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