Imagining a future for Apple without Steve Jobs

[lane]

Everyone has heard about Bill Gates stepping down from Microsoft to focus on the charities he and his wife have started. Steve has brought much of the talent and innovation out of todays Apple employee's and has somewhat managed to control the greed of the RIAA & MPAA. What do you think the future of Apple and the PC world would be like without Steve as the figurehead?

 

[BRP]

Different, but not doomed, or necessarily better or worse. It's like having the animation business without Walt Disney.

 

The thing is, though, Steve Jobs always has this little smirky smile for photos. You do get the impression that he sees the game years ahead of his competitors (but not necessarily seeing the present very well). That is a talent that few people have to offer, and would be sorely missed when he finally does retire/expire.

 

And with Microsoft, Bill Gates is only now stepping down officially. In practice, I get the impression that he hasn't really had much to do with day-to-day running MS since he stepped down from the CEO position.

[gwprod12]

Steve Jobs is a weasly nitwit. I pose a challenge.

 

If you took Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and swapped them. Steve Jobs as president of microsoft and Bill Gates as CEO of Apple, and said "Okay. You cant change anything about the product culture. You have to provide the same, or better, product", Microsoft would collapse in 2 years, and an Apple would be in every home. We'd be seeing Microsoft Commercials with Hip Youngers as Windows and Dirty Homeless Guy who no one will spange to as Mac. The tagline would be "I'm Windows. Everything Just Works. And I have a Hot japanese girlfriend/digital camera that likes to 'interface with my peripherals'" and "Windows, the Operating System of Supercomputers!" and "As you know, there's a megahertz myth going around, that 1.8ghz Core Duo processor is somehow faster than a 1.8ghz Pentium 4. Well, this isnt true, let us show our Powerpoint presentation to prove it..."

 

And in the world, we'll have people saying "It's windows. Duh, it's Obviously better. It's windows! Praise Jobs, PRAISE HIM!"

 

And we'll have Bill Gates quietly selling Mac OS and Apples at under-cost prices to every school, individual and corporation in america.

 

Windows... $1500 a copy, 3 versions a year. "Oh, and Sorry, you'll need Windows 10.6.7.3.5.2 to run Adobe Photoshop CS9, better upgrade now"

 

Macbook Pro: Reduced from $399 to $299.99, this week only. With Final Cut Pro!

 

(this is just for fun, so dont freak out)

[cyberwolf]

Yes, Jobs is a horrible businessman. Clearly that is why Apple flourished when he left. I wonder why they brought him back? What a dumb move!

 

 

You seem like you dislike Apple quite a lot. Honestly I can't figure out why you would spend time at a site devoted to making their products run on your hardware since those products are so clearly inferior.

 

Sorry for the ness. Had just been wondering.

 

While Jobs still plays an integral role with Apple, I do believe they could survive and even grow without him. However, much would depend on who replaced him. Obviously the likes of John Scully and Gil Amelio would be notsogood.

[netzen7]

There will be a future. . .just like there will be for MS. I personally attribute some of Microsoft's greed to the change in CEO. As for Jobs at the head of Apple - he is the celebrity that has made the company what it is. I wouldn't mind Gil back - I think he actually was doing an OK job turning things around - it was just too much to do in too little time. I'm actually very excited about where Apple is right now. They have all the options, and they can choose their own destiny. I do think Jobs will eventually step down - after all, he's now a part of Disney. . .and the movie CARS is a tribute to where Pixar can take him.

[gwprod12]

I dislike Apple and Steve Jobs. And I dislike the mindless dogmatic culture of Apple people. But I rather do like OS X.

 

Just like someone can support the troops without supporting George Bush. Obviously some people's minds are too weak to grasp that, but it's there anyways.

[cyberwolf]

But certainly you can't argue that Jobs has had tremendous influence on OS X and that Apple culture has had influence on Apple's products.

 

A better analogy would be disliking America but liking your home in Kansas.

 

Actually, I'm just going to say that all analogies suck.

 

I guess I just don't understand the point of going out of your way to be negative towards a company when you actually like their product. I guess my mind is just too weak.

 

Anyway, I probably shouldn't have bashed Amelio in the last post. He did (he swears) come up with the basic plan for the iMac which definitely helped to lead Apple's resurgence. At the same time though, according to employees, there was no energy at Apple while he was there at all. The iMac would have been beige, boring, and barely a blip on the media radar. I don't really doubt Amelio's vision, it's just that it seemed like he lacked the charisma that Apple needed, and probably still needs.

 

Jobs, like him or hate him (he is probably a real jerk, or at least certainly was during his first reign) has always had an amazing ability to look at an idea and figure out exactly what refinements it needs to go from being okay to being great.

 

... It's also why he's flying around in a Gulfstream while my weak mind has to drive.

[gwprod12]

Let's be honest. Nothing he's done has been great. iMac, yay. So what? They're pretty, but underpowered garbage. Did he sell 300 million of them? no. Why? Because Apple marketing is keyed towards keeping the mindless customers happy, instead of getting new customers.

 

Apple's totally evil. But, I'm not corruptable in that way, so I dont mind using their operating system. Most people are totally drawn in. Sucks to be them.

[bwhsh8r]

It would be an apple with approved 3rd party OSX boxes and licence available install dvds. Steve Jobs ended the third party thing when he came back, and that was stupid, although the third party boxes were outperforming the apple boxes and they cost less (aka a pc with osx86 except way back when like os ][)

 

 

 

bwhsh8r

[Joe The Dragon]

It would be an apple with approved 3rd party OSX boxes and licence available install dvds. Steve Jobs ended the third party thing when he came back, and that was stupid, although the third party boxes were outperforming the apple boxes and they cost less (aka a pc with osx86 except way back when like os ][)

bwhsh8r

That sound likes something that apple can do when vista comes.

They can say that there os can run on your hardware that windows vista would run slowly on and that you will a os that is a lot more secure at its base then windows is and other along the same line.

[sandmanfvrga]

Without Jobs? Probably be better. I think somebody would make Macs more affordable so that thoses that want the real Mac machines can get a base laptop for say $800 or less. Also put OSX86 out for X86 so that more can use it. But that is just a pipe dream, Jobs is a douche (heard that from a Mac user with a MBP) and Jobs will not learn.

[gwprod12]

On a side note, at my school, we're trashing all of our G4 emacs and replacing them with Core Duo iMacs. They're primarily for Graphic Design students. Since Adobe hasnt released universal binaries, and wont until the next revision of their software, the school is buying a ton of equipment that will run the software slower than the computers they're replacing. I've run Illustrator on my hackintosh, and BOY is it sloooooooow.

 

Were I Apple, I would have made sure Adobe was on board before changing my product line. At the very least, they might have warned education that it wasnt wise to scrap their perfectly sufficient two year old computers until Adobe had released software that worked correctly.

 

When Steve Jobs is dead and gone, there'll be no more Celine Dion!

(okay, you get where I was trying to go with that)