Apple executive parade not prelude to change

Jony Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design, was one of several Apple executives to share the stage with CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

Could Apple be getting closer to a leadership transition?

That's what Sam Diaz at our sister site ZDNet thinks. In this video, he argues that Apple's decision to have CEO Steve Jobs share the spotlight at Tuesday's notebook event with other executives such as COO Tim Cook and Jony Ive, senior vice president of design, means that the company is trying to showcase those executives ahead of an eventual departure by Jobs, whose health has been the subject of much bottom-feeding speculation this year.

I wasn't at the event, having flown back East to attend the wedding of a close friend. But I've been to many Apple events over the past several years, and Diaz fails to note that it's not unusual to see other Apple executives onstage with Jobs.

Scott Forstall, head of iPhone software, has played prominent roles in major Apple keynotes dating back to 2006. Jobs often defers to other executives during questions posed by shareholders at the company's annual meeting. And Schiller has been a source of comic relief for years during Jobs' speeches, playing Lou Costello to Jobs' Bud Abbott.

It's been an oft-repeated canard this year about Apple: because the company has not shared its succession plans with the world, it must not have any idea what it will do if Jobs becomes unable or unwilling to run the company. But it's hard to believe that a company that takes its products so seriously, run by a CEO as meticulous as Jobs, has not developed a plan for Apple in the post-Jobs era.

Apple may have decided to showcase its non-Jobs executives at its events in order to assure people that the company is about more than one man. But the practice of sharing the stage is nothing unusual, no matter what color shirt Cook wears onstage.

[themainbreeze]

Sam Diaz's ignorance should be enough to showcase his lack of any credibility. Just because he hasn't ever seen other executives share every other Apple event only goes to show how much he knows about the company. He should have a an " Apple Ignoramus" attached to anything he writes about Apple.

[iertry]

Yes Jobs has shared the stage with people in the past but never to this degree. At yesterday's event most of his work was introducing other people (ok I'm being a bit over exaggerative but you get my point). WWDC this year Scott and Phil did a lot of the presentation. Now Tim and Jony both did a lot of the presentation and they showed a video to demonstrate lots of the manufacturing process; and it didn't include Jobs at all. I think that he will soon be taking a less active role (though not to the degree of Gates move) but I don't think it will be because of his health.

[Mr. Dee]

What was interesting to see was how gaunt looking Tim Cook was like Steve Jobs. Must be something in the water over at Cupertino or he caught SJ's bug.

[DrtyDogg]

I thought it was just a little reminder to the press who have been screaming about Apple not having a succesor to Jobs. Kind of like "hey we've got other people who can do this pony show too." If that was the case though it seems to have back fired based on reading a lot of blogs of "Steve's Last Show?" etc.

[solitare_pax]

So there's nothing better to do than waste pixels on a story about Jobs sharing the stage? What next, a story about how they split the bill at dinner afterwards? Other than Bill Gates at Microsoft, how many people in the general public can name the heads of Adobe, Dell, HP, Intel and their designated successors? Apparently, they can't rank too far up there on the mindless media's designated deathwatch as Mr. Jobs does.

[Alvaro Soto]

Sorry, but unless you are really new to the Mac you should now that is not the first time Ive and the others take stage to talk about products and upgrades, they have been doing that for the last couple of years.
I can remember the first flat panel iMac introduction video that had Ive showcasing all the design stuff of the new iMac, also on that video Black Eye Peas was present talking about it.
Phil Shiller and other has taken stage too for the iPhone, others for Mobil Me and so on, so please come on and be serious and don't spread false information or guess to the general public.