Libor Kubín Steve Jobs announced his resignation as CEO of Apple. How will this decision affect the business?
Apple's stock price fell after the announcement, but is already at a higher value today. Tim Cook was appointed as the new CEO.
A trip to history
Jobs is one of the three founders of Apple. He was fired from the company in 1986 after scheming with then-director John Sculley. He only retained a single share of Apple. He founds the computer company NeXT and buys the animation studio Pixar.
Apple has been losing slowly but surely since the first half of the 1990s. The biggest problem is the ever-delayed new Copland operating system, the slow pace of innovation and a lack of understanding of the market. Jobs is also not doing well, NeXT computers have low sales due to high price. Hardware production is over and the company is focusing on its own NeXTSTEP operating system. Pixar, on the other hand, is celebrating success.
In the mid-427s, it became clear that Apple was unable to produce its own operating system, and therefore the decision was made to buy a ready-made one. Negotiations with the company Be about its BeOS end in failure. Jean-Louis Gassée, who once worked at Apple, is stepping up his financial demands. So the decision will be made to buy NeXTSTEP for 1 million dollars. Jobs is returning to the company as an interim director with a salary of $90 a year. The company is facing total collapse, it has working capital for only XNUMX days. Steve mercilessly terminates some projects, among them, for example, Newton.
The first swallow of the old director is an iMac computer. It works like a revelation. Until then, the reigning beige color of the square boxes is replaced by colored semi-transparent plastic and an interesting egg shape. As the first computer, the iMac did not have a conventional diskette drive at the time, but it did have a new USB interface.
In March 1999, the server operating system Mac OS X Server 1.0 is introduced. Mac OS X 10.0 aka Cheetah appears on the shelves in March 2001. The operating system uses protected memory and multitasking.
But not everything goes as it should. In 2000, the Power Mac G4 Cube appeared on the market. But the price is high and customers do not value this design gem very much.
Revolutionary evolutionary steps
It is no exaggeration to say that Apple, led by Jobs, changed more than one entire industry. The exclusively computer company has moved into the field of entertainment. In 2001, it introduces the first iPod player with a capacity of 5 GB, in 2003, the iTunes Music Store is launched. The digital music business has changed over time, clips appear, later movies, books, educational shows, podcasts…
The surprise took place on January 9, 2007, when Jobs showed the iPhone at the Macworld Conference & Expo, which was created as a byproduct of the development of the tablet. He confidently stated that he wanted to capture one percent of the smartphone market within a year. Which he did with flying colors. He achieved unprecedented success in negotiations with telecommunications companies. Operators are vying for offers to include the iPhone in their portfolio and still willingly pay a tithe to Apple.
Many companies have tried to succeed with the tablet. Only Apple managed to do it. On January 27, 2010, the iPad is presented to the public for the first time. Sales of the tablet are still tearing up the sales charts.
Is the era of IT pioneers ending?
Jobs is leaving his position as CEO, but he is not completely abandoning his baby - Apple. His decision is understandable. Although the statement says that he intends to remain an employee and deal with creative things, he will likely have little influence on the goings-on at Apple. But the company is probably losing its biggest currency – an icon, a visionary, a capable businessman and a tough negotiator. Tim Cook is a capable manager, but above all – an accountant. Time will see if the budgets of the development departments will not be cut and Apple will not become just another computer giant that is slowly dying.
What is certain is that an era in the computer industry has ended. An era of founding fathers, inventors and innovators who created new technological industries. Further direction and development at Apple is difficult to predict. In the short term, there will be no major changes. Let's hope that at least a large part of the creative and innovative spirit can be preserved.
It's a big shame :-(, but we'll see how it goes :-)
Steve is a huge phenomenon anyway. He will still be the number 1 man for me anyway
I think that if Jobs' health works at least a little, his influence on Apple will not be so small..
Steve is Apple's umbilical cord. Apple once tried to stand on its own two feet and how did it turn out.. Certainly today the company is much better prepared for Steve's departure, but cutting the umbilical cord will not be so fast, in my opinion, if Steve is doing relatively well with his health.
Where I think Jobs' influence will be lacking is in negotiations. The creation of the iTunes (Music) Store was made possible only by the extrovert and brash Jobs endlessly going around the music (film) companies and pushing and pushing and bargaining and bargaining. Such personal involvement is exceptional. We'll see if the introverted Cook will be a similar mover. It will be difficult, the negotiator will not be Personal, but Mr. Unknown.
I feel sorry for Jobs, he doesn't deserve such a fate :(
In my opinion, he deserves such a fate. I mean that you have certainly tried a lot in your life. And he deserves some rest. Even though Jobs is probably the type of person who always has to do something.