Apple prepares for six months without Jobs
Apple will be fine without Steve Jobs for six months, but better have a plan concerning the longer-term issues.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)How will Apple fare without CEO Steve Jobs at the helm for six months? History provides some indication.
Clearly, Apple will miss its legendary CEO while he takes a leave of absence to recuperate from health problems that are apparently much more serious than previously thought. But Apple is in far better shape in January 2009 than it was in August 2004, when Jobs announced he had undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer and would have to take a few months off.
These days the company has three strong product lines, a worldwide network of retail stores and, with $24 billion in the bank, the financial resources to outlast a deep recession. Flash back to the summer of 2004, when Apple was a very different place.
At the time, Apple was just getting onto solid financial ground, growing revenue by 30 percent compared with the previous year while posting net income of $61 million. By contrast, Apple recorded a net profit of $1.14 billion during the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008.
While the Mac was starting to make a comeback, that resurgence wouldn't really start in earnest until 2006 when Apple switched its processor supplier to Intel. Behind the scenes, Jobs and Co. were hard at work on that transition. The project involved a massive overhaul of Apple's code even though for years, the company had maintained a laboratory version of Mac OS X that was compatible with Intel's chips.
The iPhone was barely a concept, about to make the leap from vision to hardware, according to a Wired article detailing the behind-the-scenes development of the product that has become one of Apple's most important cash cows. It would be years--and many redesigns--later before the iPhone came to resemble the product we now know.
And the iPod was about to make a huge leap, with game-changing products such as the iPod Nano and iPod Video in development before their eventual release in 2005.
The point? These were all crucial projects that were under way when Jobs took his first medical leave of absence, from August 2004 to October, when he returned to full-time duties. And Apple managed them well enough.
This is the likely scenario for the next five months or so, while Jobs recuperates and Apple COO Tim Cook runs the company. We don't know exactly what kinds of projects Apple is working on behind closed doors, but Apple has shown in the past it can continue to develop crucial projects while its leader is sidelined, something they'll have to prove again in 2009.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster might have said it best late Wednesday: "While the iconic leadership of Steve Jobs cannot be fully replaced, we believe his core attributes as a CEO, operationally and with products, can be replicated."
But therein lies the question: what will Apple do in the long term?
CNBC reported Wednesday that two prominent tech industry executives have recently expressed "dire concerns" over Jobs' health. While unpleasant, Apple has no choice but to consider the possibility that Jobs' absence could be longer than anticipated.
That potential challenge, more than anything else Apple will do this year, is what Cook and Apple's board of directors must tackle in the coming months. The products? They'll be fine.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
For chrissakes, can't CNET put an evenhanded reporter on the Apple beat? It would be so much more interesting to read. As it stands, the site may as well just publish Apple press releases.
Dude, Microsoft gets WAY more press than it deserves (both positive and negative). I mean, look around, the spin doctors are burning the midnight oil all over Windows 7 (Windows Vista the sequel).
He's pro and con on Apple topics. Sounds pretty objective to me, like a reporter should be. People will always disagree, but don't shoot the messenger here, folks.
Makes a perfect opportunity to pick up some stock today...
i'd wait a week or two at least. As of this morning, the price is still going down. Wait for it to stabliize a bit more and find the bottom price before you invest if you don't want to lose your money.
The stock was just downgraded by one of the leading analysts firms:
"RBC Capital Markets cut its rating on Apple's stock to "underperform" from "sector perform." RBC also cut its price target on the stock back to $70 US from $125 US."
SOURCE: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/01/15/applestock.html
That $70 price means there's still some room to go before this will become a stock to warrant buying again according to the experts. That may happen quickly though, so keep that checkbook handy. :)
ref: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AAPL#chart1:symbol=aapl;range=5d;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined
hahahha man I hope you're joking. I love Jobs but man Apple "giving" away iPhones to it's employees or $250 rebate in NOT something to compare to philanthropy. Apple will have made sure those iPhones they "gave away" to employees are tax deducted, the only thing they would lose out on will be that small extra sum of money you saw on your pay slip two months after you got your iPhone to cover the tax you were deducted for the free iPhone - in short Apple paid your tax on that free iPhone.
Beside though it was Jobs that made the call to give away the iPhone it sure hell did not come out of his pocket.
Face it - Left to his own devices, Bill Gates would still be churning out MS-DOS if Apple hadn't kept on upping the ante and providing something for him to copy off and work against.
Now if the majority of IT guys would just get off their extended honeymoon with Windows 95, all would be right in the world.
Matthew 6:2-3
ref: http://isv.scripturetext.com/matthew/6.htm
If you want to discuss things like an adult, please leave that sort of thing out.
Thanks.
All of his "philanthropy" was simply for marketing reasons. His "gifts" almost always have hooks.
You can't lie, cheat, steal, and break the law on a daily basis and be anything but a scumbag.
http://www.gmsp.org/
This paid my wife's way through college... Gates can have my marketing, he wrote a check for us to the tune of 80k+ in loans.
There is a difference from the last time to this one- Apple was open and honest about Steve's condition that time. This time they have been very closed mouthed about it, keeping it secret from their own investors and leading them on. They first denied the health conditions existed, then dismissed them, then admitted belatedly that it might be a slight cold, then... this. It doens't do much for investor confidence when the company isn't being honest or open about the condition of their CEO when directly asked about it.
Apple's recent behavior has aienated a lot of people. Times have changed.
The stock is likely to go back up again. That's the nature of long term IT stocks. Who wouldn't want to go back in time and buy Microsoft stock when it was first offered? Google? All of the long term companies are going to be pretty solid in the end.
By the way, Pengunisto... you don't have to keep apologizing for Apple like this. Just let theim stand on their own without your help. You don't have to defend their actions or make escuses. Just let it go. Their actions speak for themselves far better than you or anyone else can. You are getting far too worked up over this. Take some time off and relax.
And no, I'm not apologizing for Apple; Just pointing out simple but rather obvious truths that some folks tend to ignore in their rush to give witness to their fanboyism. ;)
Good one! I love a good joke in the morning and boy, are you ever one. :)
Tell us again where MSFT's Windows marketshare is now compared to where it was three years ago, then get back to me. ;)
Jobs is a good appliance designer, a good motivator, and a good marketeer; but a genius, I think not and as for changing the world -- I don't think so.
That applies to everyone
In the short term, the pipeline is primed for quad-core iMacs and Minis. Snow Leopard is right around the corner.
Tim Cook has run the company for many years now. Steve will still have input on every major decision. He just won't be in the office every day. Kind of like how Pixar was run if you remember.
It is not like Steve Jobs personally designs all these devices and writes the software.
- by NeilFiertel January 15, 2009 2:28 PM PST
- How will Apple fare if Steve Jobs steps down? If they maintain the incredible customer service, technical help via telephone or in the Apple Store, they will keep growing just as their products will continue to more than compete with the crap supposedly in competition. Having had Macs since 1994 I can speak from some authority as I work on these machines twelve to fourteen hours a day. I have had one OSX crash in all that time. Period..I work on files that are up to four gigabytes open on the desktop...no problems, no worms, no virii and no hassle. I had one machine purchased used. I was cheated and the machine was DOA. I contacted Apple on a Saturday afternoon. I explained my problem. I told them it was likely out of warrantee. It was but was never registered so in spite of all of this I got over an hour of tech help. It was a hardware issue and the tech help arranged for me to bring it to the local Apple Store at a given hour where I was met by the concierge who carried the machine in..We are talking about a Quad G5...a monster. Apple said they would repair it for free...remember out of warrantee. Two weeks later they told me that in spite of their efforts it has some serious problem which was not worth repairing. They GAVE me a brand new in the box 8 core Mac Pro no questions asked...Can you believe this?? This is Apple and anyone who does not believe that such a reputation for great customer service ought to talk to me. By the way, being polite on the phone and thanking those that one talks to does not hurt. Mr. Jobs made this company turn around and rest assured that such customer relations is not a random act of kindness..It is company policy. Those that have a sport at attacking Apple products never owned them, I suggest. I would own nothing else. Mr. Jobs, get well and thanks for the great Apple service. I have no doubt that you indirectly did this for me.
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