When will people move past the 'cult of Steve Jobs' and simply look at Apple's products?

So what if he is a great presenter? If Apple's success is directly tied to Steve Jobs, or worse yet, his health, then why would anybody invest money in their stock, in their products, and so on?

When I get frustrated with Windows (at times) I think about going to the Apple store and getting one of those cool new MacBooks, but then I remember Apple has created an image that is almost cult-like, and their computers are not really THAT much better than anybody else's products.

Back to Steve Jobs -- he'll skip Macapalooza or whatever it's called, life will go on, and Apple's products will continue to have a cult-like following with smarmy advertisements filled with half-truths.

If, heaven forbid, Steve Jobs gets very sick and/or passes away and then Apple goes in the tank as a direct result of those unfortunate events, then the company and its products were never that great in the first place!

So, get over it everybody. It's JUST a computer, JUST a music player, and JUST a phone.

The thing about Steve Jobs and people like Bill Gates, they are truly great visionaries. They see things in a way that the software developer cannot see it. Steve saw the relevance of the GUI and the impact it would have on the industry, so did Bill Gates.

Looking at Steve's contributions over the past 10 years, its kinda embarrassing to exclude folks who have also shared Jobs vision and made them a reality: Jonathan Ive, Avie Tenavian, Bertrand Serlet, Tony Fadell, Scott Forstall. These are key figures who have helped shape the platform into the success it has been over the past 10 years.

Yes, Steve was critical in his vision, but come on now, are you telling me it will take more than 10 years to learn how to drive this Company safely into the future. All those people I mentioned some who have come and are about to go, have set the foundation. The teams at Apple know how to do things without Steve breathing down their necks. Personally, I think they are probably relieved.

Where do you get your information that sickness is why he's skipping the keynote? The general consensus that has been broadly reported is this:

1. They have no large product announcements, so why would Steve appear to say "Here's a new Mac Mini with a mild speed bump! Boom!" Makes no sense. Let one of the VP's give that announcement.

2. They've been gradually pulling out of all other global Macworld's (Paris, New York, etc) over the past few years, and it was just a matter of time before this happened.

3. Apple doesn't like the expectation that they must time their product cycle for every year in January, and have some major announcement then. They want to control their own product cycle.

4. This type of expo is expensive, unnecessary, and wasteful in the internet era. Expos of this size are being scaled back industry wide - Macworld is nothing new.

I cannot believe you don't understand all of this. You'd be a poor tech journalist if you didn't. So I can only assume you wrote this piece just to generate clicks on your blog. I hate this trend among tech journalists, but I guess there's no stopping it. Anything for web traffic, even if it means comprimising your integrity, or making it appear that you haven't done any research. I for one will just stop reading those who chose to be "click whores". Bye.

Apple will continue to do well for years to come. Steve made so many great decisions during his first tour of duty that Apple didn't peak for years after Steve was pushed out in 1985. Similarly, Steve could continue to exert influence over Apple for many years into the future by ensuring that the right people are running the company. Steve was able to run two public companies (Apple and Pixar) concurrently for several years.

Hey Dude, if health is everything, you should start practicing what you preach: from the looks of your Mr. Marshmallow face, you could use a couple hundred hours on the treadmill.

Centerfield13, great bunch of idiot arguments. Wow, congratulations to you for resisting the kool aid! Wow, you are really something! I like how your dumb post ends with 'it's just a PHONE' with the implication 'like all the others.' The idiots in the telecom industry had 20 years to produce a decent consumer phone. They collectively spent billions and Steve Jobs came in and flipped their apple cart with a 1.0 product, but it's 'just a phone.'

I think that Apple was right on in deciding to suddenly pull out of Macworld and to announce at the last minute that Steve Jobs wasn't going to be giving the keynote presentation which he has given every year since, what? 1998? I'm sure that nobody was expecting him to be there. I'm sure all those people who paid to be there weren't counting on watching a Keynote by Steve. It's no big deal. I'm sure if they had put out months ago that Phil Shiller was doing keynote that the attendance would be just as high. No, Joe is right, Steve Jobs has suddenly decided that he needs to set his priorities straight and focus on himself and his family as opposed to his company.
Most CEO's set that priority by announcing their retirement, stating that they want to "focus on their families" but Steve is above that. He'll just make last minute announcements which have huge consequences on all the little people out there that have made Apple what they are today, but Apple doesn't have to worry. Apple has an adoring media who will defend them to the end. I mean, while a company with an ounce of class would have had Steve give the keynote and then at the end of it announce it would be his last, that's just not how Apple plays things.
Apple needs Steve like a fish needs water. No Steve, no adoring media. No adoring media... and, well, the playing field gets leveled. I mean, how will we know a product is cool or not unless Steve gives a keynote and says "isn't this cool? We think this is so cool. This is cool" about a thousand times.
And Steve would totally announce a new mac mini. He did it when the mini went intel. And hell, a 3G iPhone wasn't that big a deal, but Steve-o was up there telling everyone how awesome it was... despite the fact that he had been talking for a year about how a 3G iPhone didn't make sense.

Steve Jobs and the Board of Apple, Inc. have obviously been concerned about acquiring, growing and keeping the best talent at Apple for the long run.

I would bet they have a committee continuing to review succession for each key position in the company, not just Jobs. Accidents happen, however you define accident.

Steve Jobs has participated in no less than 4 significant CEO positions and he is highly aware of the need to be able to plan ahead, and particularly so for the most valuable asset in the company.

As a clue, I offer Jobs quote:

Steve Jobs On managing through the economic downturn: "We've had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren't going to lay off people, that we'd taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place -- the last thing we were going to do is lay them off. And we were going to keep funding. In fact we were going to up our R&D budget so that we would be ahead of our competitors when the downturn was over. And that's exactly what we did. And it worked. And that's exactly what we'll do this time."

I would bet that it isn't because he's sick, but because the board or maybe even Steve himself want to introduce another face for people to focus on, another "face of apple".

Unfortunately, that isn't going to work, because apple is Steve. I would love to buy apple stock at its current discount, but I am afraid, because if Steve goes, so does apple. Look at the "unsucess" of the company under any other leadership... Gil Amelio? Yikes. John Scully? Yikes x two. Michael Spindler? Yuck.

Steve is the company and the products. Unlike Pixar, where although quite involved, he built a star quality management team and let it shine, it appears that there is no braintrust or collaboration at the top of apple.

It's a tragedy.

This is all speculation. All we know is nothing. And that will likely remain until we are told something. Logic is just too easy isn't it?

Speculate away internet, speculate away.

Chuck, in the last two "big" events of the past year (WWDC and the notebook announcement) Jobs shared the stage with his brain trust (or part of it): Johnathan Ive, the VP of design and the man responsible for the look of the products, Scott Forstall who heads iPhone OS development, and Phil Schiller, head of marketing. In fact at the Developers Conference I think Forstall had more stage time than Jobs did. He may be the face of Apple, but he's not Apple. He didn't design and build the iPod or the iPhone, nor did he write OS X.

This cult-like following that is so maligned is something that any other company would - probably literally - kill for.

I bet the AAPL stock value plummets when he resigns.. this has been coming a while.

Apple needs more forwards

right on, travis. no matter what people speculate, it is what it is.

Centerfield13: You'd be an idiot to buy a mac without trying Ubuntu first. Yes, Windows sucks. Yes, OSX is vastly and unquestionably superior to Windows. So? At least three other operating systems are too.

Leave Steve Jobs alone. The man has been through hell and back already with his cancer. He doesn't need "journalists"/bloggers spreading rumors about his health for months. As a person who has had close family members battle pancreatic cancer, I can say that blogging about a man who endures what he has in a public life is among the lowest of the low. I send this to every writer who writes articles like this one. As you know, there are far too many.

Talk about anything you want about Apple. But leave his personal health alone.

Centerfield13 you mistake your anger about this article's topic for fear, and your fear is a result of your ignorance. One way or another something must motivate people to "believe" in a Microsoft or Apple product, for you your ego is boosted by your vast knowledge of Microsoft products whereas your lack of understanding Apple products leads you to label the strange "cult-following" phenomenon as "ridiculous"... that's easy for your brain, now your ego is safe... all is good.

except your an idiot...

and you think Apple's products aren't really technically better?

why is the pc manufacturer's industry drooling over OS X and begging for licensing?

why was the best vista laptop of 2007 (pc world) a macbook pro?

maybe os x 10.5 isn't proof enough? wait till snow leopard, grandcentral and opencl are going to make the performance of other os's look pitiful!

Look ..

Steve Jobs is THE Visionary of the Computer Branch. Ok?

Two examples. Steve Jobs had a vision of what todays computers would
like already in 1989. That's almost 20 years ago! See :

http://crashrecovery.org/nextstation.jpg

Another great tip to identify the real value added contribution by
Steve Jobs is to watch the following movie :

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
by Martyn Burke, Michael Swaine, Paul Freiberger,
featuring Noah Wyle (Steve Jobs), Joey Slotnick (Steve Wozniak),
Anthony Michael Hall (Bill Gates), John Di Maggio (Steve Ballmer)
and Josh Hopkins (Paul Allen)
http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Silicon-Valley-Anthony-Michael/dp/B0009NSCS0

Cheers,

Robert

Okay Centerfield13, when you say "their computers are not really THAT much better than anybody else's products" what have you been smoking? If I were you, I'd go back to the drug dealer and get my money back. Apple products are superior in my mind to most others' products on the market, I'm not saying all, I'm saying most. There are a few who can compete but most other products don't hold a candle to what Apple has to offer.

Make no mistake. SJ is the key driver of AAPL. His insanely great leadership at this company has created a culture of followers, not challengers to the throne. There are no other leaders at this company - just facilitators. What happened to AAPL after his first departure will happen again.

Great, blog post #10,001 from yet another click whore trying to profit at Apple's and Steve Jobs' expense. I hope your viral infection lasts another month, and that when you finally recover all your co-workers and family members continue to remind you how "gaunt" you look with those pasty, marshmallowy jowls and Steve Balmeresque bald head.

Why don't you consider actually trying to contribute something useful to humanity? Perhaps you can do our readers a favor by retiring?

Well, I don't care what happen in Apple, I just want good products from them. ^^

His Royal Steveness is Jesus. Apple is God. The iMac, iPod, and the iPhone are the Holy Trinity.
Watch Steve miraculously re-appear for his Faithful Flock of Believers, like the 2nd Coming...

Bum baiting is a worthless waste of time.

Apple is where it is because of excellent products are easy to use and fail less than others giving them "word of mouth" promotion. Lots of notes from Consumer Reports and others attest to the consumer satisfaction and consumers who buy Apple again and again (me: 2 iPhones & 2 MacBooks this year alone, not counting those I assisted friends with, plus I use Windows for some work).

Apple got those easy to use durable products because Steve Jobs concentrated on putting together a magnificent team of top rate engineers and designers, and then the managers to make it run like a Swiss watch.

Even if Steve Jobs retires (which I personally doubt any time soon), there will be others trained well by Steve to continue the process of putting simplicity, functionality, ease-of-use, and quality in their top of the line products.

I don't think the average blog poster fully appreciates the total package Apple has put together with the programming tools, chip development & production, OS, special software add-ons in the OS & applications, top notch hardware, quality parts that rarely fail, and the integration between devices including universal synching and the use of Mobile Me.

Apple is now vertically integrated in personal data product creation like no other company. Apple now transcends any one individual. Given their good foundation & people, I expect Apple is going to have as good a chance as any company today of being a survivor to its 100th birthday.

Jobs is an intricate part of EVERY Apple product. He has to give his blessing on EVERYTHING from icon placement to interface feel. Every single Apple product IS Steve Jobs. If he leaves, the Apple products will suffer.

He left once and the company almost folded. His control freak nature will be the end of the company.

Companies are defined by their leadership. Apple has a very talented leadership team. Steve has managed to imbue that team with a sense of passion for quality. Apple is now defined by that passion. The company will survive without Jobs.

I have been an Apple user for many years, but many of the ills that I dislike in Microsoft and Windows are also present in Apple and Mac. I still think Apple makes better products. The user interface is always better, but Apple products are not twice as good. They shouldn't cost twice as much.
Microsoft has forced many things down the consumer's throat over the years, but so has Apple. Microsoft has taken advantage of people and business in general, but so has Apple.
Apple always got off without the same criticism that M$ gets because Apple is cooler and has the underdog position. That is a great trick if you can pull it off, which Steve Jobs has. Well done!
Personally, I liked what Apple was a lot more than what Apple is now. On the other hand, I still have a small nerd inside of me that cheers every time Apple comes out with a new ground breaking product that kicks the rest of the industry in the a$$.

To address the article more directly, I have to agree that health and family are more important than business. How many millions do you need? Apple is most definitely what it is today because of the efforts, foresight, and charisma of Steve Jobs. But if Steve Jobs retires, someone else will fill the void at Apple.
Also, old institutions need to fall to make way for new ones. If Apple dwindles without Jobs, so be it. Another company will fill that void as well. Younger companies try harder to secede through innovation and better service than established companies do. That is better for the consumer and whole industry. Older companies too often do not give us what we want or need, rather they try to tell us what to want or need. That is not good for anyone but the old companies themselves. (Now if only M$ would dwindle faster so we could get some innovation and competition instead of M$'s bloatware, DRM, and awful licensing schemes.)

Opps!

succeed, not secede

That is what happens when I let spell check think for me.

If steve Jobs dies a chapter in the tech market will die along with him. He is the innovator behind apple not just a business and marketing man like bill gates who's company puts out s**t products. notice how when Jobs left apple for a little while apple almost died because its products sucked for that short period of time when Jobs was gone. and to your comment centerfield13 yes their older hardware not the newer stuff (multi gesture touchscreen anyone?) is not horribly innovative. It is their OS and their vision for the future and future products, look at their patents for skins that you can put over something to make it multi gesture, yes its a little out there but it shows that apple is thinking of the future and what tech can do. Look at Microsoft what have they done besides make the crappy Zune and Windows. In closing apple is the most innovative company in the technology market and is paving the way for our technological future.

I thought Mr. Jobs already died. If not how many months does he have left?

Jobs is the visionary that stated that "good artists copy, great artists steal".

I have to give it him, he is a genius. No one else could have pulled it off. For his Intel based computers (actually they are PCs): Let's take an older model mainboard, stick in an Intel chip, modify OSX it so that it will run Windows, stick it into a pretty case, and charge around double for the same spec Microsoft based laptop. Apple fans will snap them up and then we will run a campaign that separates "us" from a PC (don't tell anyone that both OSX and Windows are running on a PC). We will tell everyone how much more reliable they, when actually many of the parts are made in the same plants as the "enemy". Finally, we will charge people for the OSX service packs (ie: leopard, etc). When security issues come around, we will just deny them and secretly patch so that no one will be the wiser. The campaign is working and my kudos to him. Apple deserves every penny that they can get from the sheeple.

Lots of Apple fanbois here, that's for sure.

Well, hell: I thought this was a particularly graceful little essay and I was all set to leave a comment saying so--only to scroll down and read some pretty insane screeds and brickbats.

I have no idea where the anger is coming from in any direction here, but all this blogger is doing is addressing a much discussed topic(that he was hardly the first to bring up), one that is, like it or not, major news(yes, the mere fact that speculation is happening is news)--and he gets pilloried in the nastiest terms.

Regardless, I still say you wrote this piece up with compassion and insight--and clarity. I'm afraid those are rare qualities on the interwebs these days.

Geez Joe, you sound as if you REALLY know how Steve Jobs is personally. Cause OBVIOUSLY he is a great family man & does not put Apple as his main focus. Please, tell us more. How about his working habits.

. . . ass

Geez Joe, you sound as if you REALLY know how Steve Jobs is personally. Cause OBVIOUSLY he is a great family man & does not put Apple as his main focus. Please, tell us more. How about his working habits.

. . . ass