For many people Apple andSteve Jobs are one in the same. But I remember a time when Jobs was not the front man at Apple. Steve Jobs was ousted at a company he co-founded by John Sculley in the mid-eighties. From that period until his return as iCEO in 1996 Apple floundered.
Wall Street reacted to the news of Jobs resigning with a sharp decline in Apple stock by five per cent. They too have long memories.
And what do we know aboutTim Cook, the new CEO, besides that he is openly gay? According to his wiki page, he worked for IBM, Intelligent Electronics and had a brief stint at Compaq before joining Apple. He starts his day at 4:30 AM and likes to hold Sunday night staff meetings via telephone.
This news will lead to uncertainty. And, I’m sure Cook is able to easily roll out iPhones, iPads and MacBook Air products. But it’s that innovation that people are looking for from Apple. They expect it from this company. The first slip up I think will be catastrophic. For example, the iPhone Location Gate scandal or the iPhone antenna gate scandal would have been huge challenges for Cook. Jobs, on the other hand, was bulletproof and shrugged those things off like annoying mosquitoes.
This is my point. We don’t know what Cook is made out of. We don’t know if he can handle a scandal like antenna gate and more importantly we don’t know if he is an innovative CEO. He can run a company, but will that be enough for the Mac faithful? Now if Jobs appointed an executive likeGuy Kawasaki, who is an Apple Fellow and one of the lead executes on the original MacIntosh, then I think it can be business as usual. Kawasaki is well liked and well thought of. He is also revered in the Mac community. He would be looked upon by Wall Street and the masses as an extension of Jobs. As they always say we shall see what happens to Apple with Cook as its CEO.
