UPDATE: On the 5th of October 2011 Steve Jobs passed away after suffering from pancreatic cancer. While calling Jobs a genius may be a stretch, he was certainly an innovator whose vision not only turned Apple around but made it into the world’s leading technology company.
This week marked the end of an era in the technology world, as Steve Jobs, who along with Steve Wozniack founded Apple, stepped down as CEO of Apple. The man who brought the world the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, will no longer head Apple.
Apple Computer
Despite Jobs being the man most associated with Apple today, it was co-founder Steve Wozniak who created the first Apple Computer, from the design, and parts to the operating system, and also the second one, the Apple II. However it was Jobs that was the driving force behind the company.
It was Jobs who first saw the potential of the home computers, and Jobs who garnered ‘Apple’ their first order, and it was Jobs’ drive and enthusiasm that made Apple Computer into the company it soon became. It was also Jobs’ passion that allowed Apple Computer to lure PepsiCo President John Sculley away from PepsiCo to be their new CEO in 1983. An act that perhaps Steve Jobs came to regret.
Apple Jobs-less
In 1985, after a power struggle with John Sculley, Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple by the board. Something that perhaps the Apple Computer board, soon came to regret.
After Jobs’ forced resignation, Apple Computer floundered, the IBM clone PCs took off, whereas Apple’s line of home computers did not, despite technical advances such as mice, icons and the first computer GUI (graphical user interface – i.e. desktop).
Steve Jobs however, prospered away from Apple, setting up NeXT Computer and bringing the world another advanced home computer, but this also didn’t take off. It was in software that NeXT and Jobs were most successful. Apple eventually purchased NeXT in 1996 for $429 million gaining back Steve Jobs and also the NeXT Step operating system, which was used as the basis for Mac OS.
In 1997 Gil Amelio, like John Sculley three years earlier (and of course Jobs himself) was forced out by the Apple board, Jobs was soon named CEO.
Apple and Microsoft
Steve Jobs wasn’t long at the helm of Apple before he managed to get a partnership, and an investment from long term rival, Microsoft. Jobs said at the time:
“So, the era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I’m concerned. This is about getting Apple healthy, this is about Apple being able to make incredibly great contributions to the industry and to get healthy and prosper again.”
Jobs then steered Apple toward creating more aesthetically pleasing and better designed products, introducing the iMac and the iBook.
These ground breaking products were followed by the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone and most recently, the iPad, turning Apple products from niche products to much sought after products.
Jobs is credited with almost single-handedly turning things around for Apple, turning decline into a great success and ironically overtaking Microsoft as the world’s largest technology company.
However Jobs has now stepped down, and is in very poor health, perhaps even terminally ill if the rumours are to be believed. So what now for Apple?
Ive and Cook
The new Apple CEO is Tim Cook, and while he certainly doesn’t have the track record of Jobs, he is seen as a capable replacement.
As I said, Jobs is given almost all the credit for Apple’s recent success, but there is another man at Apple who can at least take some of the credit, Jonathan Ive. Ive is the designer behind every Apple product since the iMac, acknowledged as the man that made Apple’s products so desirable. So it is certainly possible that Ive and Cook together can continue the success that Apple is currently experiencing.
However, neither man has the vision and drive of Jobs. Jobs was able to sell Apple versions of devices that were either already available, and in some cases superior to Apple’s offering, as well as updated versions of failed products, such as the tablet. The tablet in particular was a device that Microsoft had previously tried, and failed, to launch into the mainstream, and even Apple had failed before. Yet Jobs managed to make it a must have item.
Jobs is staying on as Chairman, but clearly as ill as he is, this is unlikely to be a hands on role, or indeed, for long.
Will Apple with Tim Cook at the helm continue to make such trend setting products? Or will Apple once again slide back into being purely a niche product maker?
Only time will tell.