After Steve Jobs, who runs Apple?
"We are in the early stages of changing roles in Apple's management structure," Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster wrote last week in the wake of Steve Jobs' decision to hand the Macworld keynote over to senior vice president Phil Schiller — a move Munster characterized as "a clear message that a leadership shift is underway."
In this analyst's scenario, Jobs stays on as CEO — "the irreplaceable face of Apple" — but gives an increasing public role to a management team that Munster believes is one of the company's "competitive advantages" but who, in contrast to their world-famous CEO, are virtually unknown.
So who are these guys?
We took a crack at handicapping Apple's (AAPL) back bench last June, when Jobs' emaciated appearance at the World Wide Developers Conference raised the issue of his succession with new urgency. (See Why does Steve Jobs looks so thin?)
Except for the elimination of one of our favorites (Tony Fadell, who left the team in November) and the disputed appointment of his replacement (Mark Papermaster, whose move from IBM is still tied up in court) — the faces haven't changed.
Rather than repeat the exercise, we simply offer it again, in its original form, below the fold.
Handicapping Apple’s back bench
“You know, I think it wouldn’t be a party,” Steve Jobs told Fortune in February, describing the future of his company if, as he put it, Jobs got hit by a bus. “But there are really capable people at Apple. … My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors.”
Life at Apple without Jobs may be more than just a hypothetical. The 53-year-old Silicon Valley pioneer had a malignant tumor removed from his pancreas four years ago. With fresh concerns about his health following his gaunt appearance at the World Wide Developers Conference two weeks ago, it’s fair to ask: who’s on that executive team — and which ones have a shot at ruling Apple once Jobs leaves (even if he exits years from now and not for health reasons)?
There are 11 men in all — not counting Jobs. A handful are familiar faces to the small community of professional Apple watchers. As far as the general public is concerned, they are invisible, hidden in the long shadow cast by Apple’s high-profile CEO.
Some seem more qualified to step into Jobs’ shoes than others, but judge for yourself. Here they are, as listed on the company’s Executive Profiles web page, in rough order of their chances of succeeding Steve Jobs.
Timothy D. Cook: Chief operating officer. A 12-year veteran of IBM (IBM) and Compaq, Cook, 47, probably has more direct line responsibility that anyone in the company — even Jobs. Not only is he head of the resurgent Mac division, but he’s responsible, as his official bio puts it, “for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations, including end-to-end management of Apple’s supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries.” Cook’s deep knowledge of Apple’s operations and ready command of detail has won him the respect of the board of directors and the investment community. A bachelor with a passion for cycling, he’s as steady and low-key as Jobs is temperamental. A Wall Street Journal profile described Cook’s dressing down of another man at a meeting as so “professional and surgical” it was only afterward that observers realized the man had just had his head handed to him. Although some wonder whether Cook has enough charisma to run Apple, when the CEO was out of commission, Cook was the executive Jobs put in charge.
Tony Fadell. Senior vice president, iPod division. With his American swagger and his hair bleached white, Fadell, 38, stood out at button-down Philips Electronics (PHG), where he led an in-house pirate operation designing Windows CE-based devices. It was there that he came up with the idea of marrying a Napster-like music store with a hard drive-based MP3 player. He shopped the concept around the Valley before Apple’s Jon Rubenstein snapped it up and put Fadell in charge of the engineering team that built the first iPod. Ambitious and charismatic (and no longer a bleached blond), he now runs the hardware division that makes two of Apple’s three key product lines: the iPod and the iPhone.
Ron Johnson. Senior vice president, retail. Johnson, 49, was a retailing star at Target (TGT) before he came to Apple in 2000, and he’s an even bigger star today, having designed what is arguably the world’s most user-friendly chain of retail stores. He shares Jobs’ single-minded focus on the customer experience, and when he parts ways with Jobs — the Genius Bar, where customers get hands-on troubleshooting, was a Johnson idea that Jobs resisted — he is often right. Most retailers focus on how you find the right item, he says, how you select it and how you get it out of the store. “We said there’s a bigger idea. Let’s design it around the customer’s life, not the moment when they’re in the store.” (link) Apple’s second-most charismatic public speaker, he is on several outsiders’ short list of possible successors.
Philip W. Schiller: Senior vice president, worldwide product marketing. An avuncular, unthreatening presence, Schiller, 47, plays a slightly rotund Sancho Panza to Jobs’ Quixote at nearly every Apple event. His deer-in-the-headlight performance — caught on videotape — when ambushed by a British TV reporter at the London unveiling of the iPhone contributed to the sense that Apple would be in trouble if Jobs were ever to leave. But it would be a mistake to underestimate Schiller. He has 24 years of marketing experience — 17 of them at Apple — and his official bio credits him with delivering a long list of “breakthrough” products: iMac, MacBook, Airport, Xserve, Mac OS X, Safari, AppleTV, iPod and iPhone.
Scott Forstall. Senior vice president, iPhone software. A veteran of NeXT, where he helped build the operating system that became OS X, Forstall came to Apple with Jobs in 1997. After proving himself by managing the team that released OS X Leopard, he was put in charge of software for the iPhone. “I actually have a photographer’s loupe that I use to make sure every pixel is right,” he told Time. “We will argue over literally a single pixel.” His profile was raised by public appearances at WWDC 2006 and the March ‘08 SDK announcement. In an executive shakeup three days before WWDC 2008, he was elevated to senior vice president, reporting directly to Jobs. “Forstall is the man if SJ gets to pick [his successor],” says 9to5Mac’s Cleve Nettles.
Jonathan Ive. Senior vice president, industrial design. Although his name is often floated as the next Apple CEO — and despite the fact that he garnered 49% of the votes in a recent online poll that asked “who would you trust to run Apple, without Jobs?” — Ive, 41, is probably the least likely of the leading contenders to take the job. Modest and notoriously shy (when he won the 2005 Design and Art Direction award it was Jobs who made the acceptance speech, although Ive was in the audience), he guards his privacy jealously; even Apple’s HR department doesn’t know exactly when he was born. Ive is perhaps the most influential industrial designer of our age. Why would he give up a job he clearly loves to take on the responsibilities of a CEO?
Below the fold: The also-rans.
Peter Oppenheimer. Chief financial officer. A long-time Apple senior exec — he joined he company in 1996 after a six years at Coopers & Lybrand and a sojourn at ADP (ADP), where he was CFO of the claims services division — Oppenheimer, 45, has the job formerly held by Fred Anderson (the ex-Apple CFO thrown under the bus in the options backdating scandal). Oppenheimer’s is a familiar voice to analysts and tech journalists. He turns up every three months on the company’s quarterly earnings call to rattle off Apple’s sales and revenue numbers and to offer his traditionally conservative guidance for the coming quarter. He took a lot of heat from shareholders in January when guidance even more pessimistic than usual sent the stock into a one-day 16-point nosedive.
Bertrand Serlet. Senior vice president, software engineering. One of only two members of Apple’s executive team for whom English is a second language — Fake Steve Jobs calls him a “friendly cyborg” from another planet, but he’s actually from France — Serlet, 47, came to Apple from Xerox PARC and NeXT, where he developed the workspace manager in NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. Having help port the NeXT operating system to Mac OS X, he took over Avie Tevanian’s software engineering post in 2003. Serlet is credited with leading development of 10.4 and 10.5 versions of OS X, but he’s most famous among Apple fans for his “Redmond, start your copiers” performance at WWDC 2006 — available on YouTube — pointing out similarities between OS X and Windows Vista.
Sina Tamaddon. Senior vice president, applications. Another non-native born American (he’s Iranian), and yet another veteran of NeXT, Tamaddon, 50, came to Apple with Jobs’ return in September 1997. Although he’s held several top positions at Apple — including vice president and general manager of the Newton Group — and reports directly to Jobs, Tamaddon probably has a lower profile than anybody else on the executive team. He’s the only member without a bio on Apple’s official web page, and as this went to press, the question “Where did Sina Tamaddon go to school” had still not elicited any replies on WikiAnswers.
Daniel Cooperman. Senior vice president, general counsel and secretary. A relative newcomer, Cooperman, 56, joined Apple in November 2007 as the last move in a series of legal musical chairs (he left Oracle (ORCL) for Apple as Donald Rosenburg was leaving Apple for Qualcomm; Rosenberg had replaced Nancy Heinen, who is fighting SEC charges in the backdating case). Jobs began recruiting Cooperman last August after getting the okay from his friend Larry Ellison, according to Law.com, sweetening the pot with restricted stock worth $25 million. “The switcheroo was Larry’s idea,” wrote Fake Steve Jobs last September, when the move was announced. “Now that the feds are circling again he says I need some bad-ass mofo leading my team, not some namby-pamby Valley type. ‘I want you to have my consigliere,’ he told me. ‘He’s a good man. He can be trusted. Listen to him.’”
Bob Mansfield. Senior vice president, Mac hardware engineering. Mansfield has an important job: he heads the team that has delivered “dozens of breakthrough products,” according to his official bio, from the iMac to the Macbook Air. But he didn’t actually head the team when most of those breakthroughs were made. After stints at two companies specializing in 3D graphics chips, SGI and Raycer Graphics, he came to Cupertino in 1999 when Apple acquired Raycer. He was part of the troika that took over Mac engineering after the messy dismissal of Tim Bucher in 2004 and was formally put in charge of the division only last month. Unlike most senior VPs at Apple, he answers to Tim Cook, not Steve Jobs.
Put Timothy D. Cook in charge and bring back Apple Evangelist Guy Kawasaki to be the spokesperson and face of Apple. Guy has the charisma to keep Apple at the top. Use Guy for all major speaking engagements and for all new product announcements.
My Vote? Jony Ive! He has the passion and the charisma. Yes he is shy and secretive, but then again, so is Apple and Jobs, in most cases. He CARES about the product he is in charge of and has a great vision. I can see Ive speaking at a keynote event. I do like Cook, but I do not see him as a leader of the Apple Passion.
what is up with the race thing? I'm black and I don't expect to see a negroe everywhere. You sad and insecure brothers and sisters out there need to chill.Oh, here's a novel idead, start your own tech company. Yeah!
And lets be real, Apple works because their products are tested to near perfection for the best user experience.MS only cares about licensing cash. My girlfriend's hp took 40 minutes to get through some stupid red tape before we got to the home screen. My Al macbook got busy in less than a minute after being turned on. This is from the out of box experience. Get the point? Now, I will not give 100% loyalty to them,not even 30%. Why? Because you don't! We don't really know what goes on at Apple. We were told that the ipod was done in house but we know it was a shopped around product before finding a home in cupertino. They lie.and the thing with creative? Yeah. It is the fit and finish that we enjoy, sometimes but more often than not.Steve has an ego that is really big from what the reports say. He is a mean one. he has something to prove to the naysayers that wrote him off and he has said it loud and clear: Who's your daddy. And at 53 he's a baby. this tech game takes years to master. And as far as Apple stocks dropping, it is investor fear. Irrational really. Apple has 24 billion in the bank and no debt.Booya!
They have to be doing something right. And this is off of a few products that get refreshed like three times a year! Amazing! Dell drops like 150 different laptops and desktops a month.Now multiply that by the other 10 thousand pc clowns out there. Yeah, Apple is pretty bad ass.
Yeh, when Steve goes down, Apple goes down. It's amazing that a company's worth is based upon one person. Hardly the world's greatest investment. For all we know, Steve Jobs may be worth more than Apple, the company. Products mean nothing, retail stores mean nothing. Steve Jobs built everything with this own hands, came up with every good idea that Apple ever had and when he leaves all that's left of Apple will be the skin and a few seeds that stand no chance of growing.
Investors are basically being told to sell their stock right now since when he leaves it will be worth less than confederate money after the Civil War. $40 billion dollars worth of charisma and magnetism and he's not a pop idol or movie star. I can only say based on analyst predictions, Apple is now probably the worst investment ever. A company that is held in the palm of one man's hand. When Steve lets go of Apple and it drops on the ground, splat, it's a goner.
Apple stock value has already lost it's iPhone premium, losing it's iPod premium and now the biggest premium, the Steve Jobs premium. What a screwed up company. A company that's probably one of the healthiest companies around and yet it's on the verge of collapse if you listen to WS and the media. Good luck investors for January. You guys are gonna have your forward guidance low-balled back to the stone age.
Steve's only 53, although many seem to write him off, others to spread rumours of heart attacks. I'm sure he'll go on strong, taking Apple further for many years to come.
There are many corporations that have a prominent CEO. Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, Sunmicro as well as others. None have the "rock star" rating of Apple's Steve Jobs. His company has an extremely good base of executive officers and directors. Even if Jobs was terminally ill, which, with the type of pancreatic cancer he was diagnosed, as a doctor myself, I do not think that is a problem. However, if he were terminal, it would still be several months for him to turn over his leadership. His chance of falling over dead is equal to any one of us. That is not going to happen.
We often say that a person thinks that he is a "legend in his own mind" and this is not true of Steve. It is true of many Wall Street traders. But, he too, at such time, can and will be replaced. Three months later, everyone will say, "Steve Jobs Who?"
This is bad news. I hate to hear someone is sick, particularly Steve. He may not be a nice man, but he's smart as a whip and apple will be at a loss without him.
That is all that is required to say. It's not necessary to write an entire article on the premise that someone will die. Bad journalism and desperation taint this article. We have so much more to care about than this. You just know there's scores of leeches hoping he dies just for the news story. Disgraceful.
Another disgraceful thing is the amount of comments on race. Those comments just prove the fact that we arent equal as we should be nowadays. Steve jobs has an incredible insight into who will be the best for the company, and he makes his decisions based on who will be best for apple. Whats ridiculous is the way people are hiring based on race and gender. It's gotten to the point where a white male is actually disadvantaged. When Obama got elected, the issue dissapated. Gone. Racism is nonexistant and is an excuse for not actually getting a job. I'm annoyed because as a white female, I have less of a chance to get into college than a black man. That's reverse racism.
Either way, I know people could care less what I think. For gods sake, though, could you people just be hopeful for the health of a great and innovative man?
This story is completely irrelevant. There is no evidence Jobs is leaving Apple. Why is the press, of all people, entering the speculation game? How this this novel idea — REPORT FACTS!
Steve apparently doesn't care for women as execs. Or people of color. Sheesh. What year is this again?
Adam – I probably spent more time than you did on your
S-H-O-R-T snippy little comment. Tell us something that wasn't true in what I said. Try to respond intelligently and give facts that would show Apple isn't a great company, if you know something say it.
Quote
Women and apples don’t mix.
Google “garden of Eden” for details
End Quote
That is the funniest comment so far. Still you are right about it.
FWIW I think Tony Fadell might be the ONE.
My hunch: If Fadell was picked for succession, Jobs et al might have decided the best way to empower Fadell would be to let him have some 'time off' with his new familty and allow him to get himself together for the new role and then, to bring him back renewed and dedicated as the designated 2nd in command. He would then replace Jobs at some time in the future.
The benefit here is it allows everyone to adjust to their new relationship to Tony and allows all of Apple to adjust and welcome his return as the named successor to Jobs.
JMHWAG
Excuse me people!
Who cares where the women are!
Or where the people of color are!
These people were picked to helm their posts based on a prediction on performance, not because of their melanin levels or whether or not they shave their legs!
And it looks to me, based on the companies performance, that these choices were and still are correct!
I know a guy, call him Rick and early 2-digit worker was promised a stock option by Steve Jobs. When the company went public, the employees asked Jobs where his option was. Steve Jobs said, "I forgot. You should have reminded me."
The employee worked there a total of seven years and now has worked for a long time at another Silicon Valley firm. Steve Jobs is not a nice person.
You must be right Buckley. It's just a sad situation when journalists will stoop to such unscrupulous lows to verbally takedown a man and the company he represents, by attacking his health, fake obituaries and bash a company that is debt free, has 27 billion in the bank and regularly puts out the most innovative products that everyone wants. I thought that's what a great company is all about. The media wants Steve Jobs to name a successor in case something happens to him, if he does, they say his health is bad, if he doesn't they say the company is doomed. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Except for Windows and Vista I honestly couldn't tell anyone what else, if anything, Microsoft does to make money. As for Bill Gates, he was the face and man behind Microsoft and I never heard anyone ask what happens when he leaves or about his health. He doesn't look like the healthiest person if people want to nit pick him. Then there's Steve Balmer, the successor, the way I would describe him is a useless whack job. One of the presentations that I remember him doing, he was skipping around the stage like a lunatic that just got out of a mental institution. The products Apple makes speak for themselves , not only how popular they are and how well they sell, but the fact that every time they come out with a new product, other companies are rushing to replicate it and "Ikill it", but they never can. No matter what Apple does it's never good enough and journalists and analysts just decimate them, like no other company, and no other company even RIMM, Microsoft, Nokia, HP etc. has created such a wide variety of products continuously that people wait in line for hours and days to get. I'm not trying to be a cheerleader for Apple but the company's actions and track record speak for themselves and that's a fact. Anyone can have a different opinion but you can't deny what they have proved and how they are the technology company to beat. I also wonder if these journalists are just too lazy to find a real story to write about that actually matters, or if this is just an easy way to throw out another article about Apple and it's CEO and fill up space. There really are so many more serious and important stories to be written about that are happening to everyone everyday and Apple & Steve Jobs isn't it. You'd think Steve Jobs was the President of the U.S. and we need to vote for his successor or the world will come to an end.
There are several idiotic comments about the "lack of diversity" in the list of back benchers at Apple. The executives pictured have been chosen because they are the best for the job. Why ruin a great company by picking someone just because they are black or a woman? This is business and not a social experiment. It's bad enough we have a guy elected President because he's black and pop culture hero.
I really don't get the point of all the PC diversity comments. Are you all that breathtakingly stupid? The reality is that there are a bunch of White guys already in place who have proven themselves. In your imagination the candidates are composed of one of every nationality, age, race, religion and sex; along with every combination thereof. The imaginary CEO will be a rotating commitee head wherein Apple will offer every product ever imagined by every dysfunctional idiot living today. On day 2, they go into receivership.
Apple is a threat to MS licensing business model. Apple doesn't use MS to power its computer, it has its own. No other computer maker can say that. The integration of hardware and software is what makes Apple so damn good. I bought my girlfriend an hp pav laptop and when I turned it on, it took 40+ minutes of red tape to just get to the home screen. In contrast, the Al macbook she got me went online in less than a minute! Who's your daddy!
Tis not a question of "if" but of "when"
Steve Jobs of Apple abates.
But whomever they pick
Will be less of a dick
Than Steve Ballmer replacing Bill Gates.
Jobs has had an almost cult like following. He's strong and not afraid to expect and demand what he wants — and he's always gotten it. You can't really replace him, but the only other guy that will be really be listened to and watched is Jon Ive. He designed the iMac, iPod and many other products. He made Jobs' visions come to life. The rest are all financial/corporate types. Schiller is great, but more of a side-kick to Jobs. It's like Ed McMahan taking over the Tonight Show. I think Ive has to do it–whether he's ready or not.
Ive For Sure. Know him, talked to him about it, he is it. Apple needs a creative and no one wants to be in industrial designer forever.
Perhaps I am confused about Apple's mission; I thought they were single-mindedly focused on making interesting, compellingly innovative electronic products.
Now it appears that they have been given a triple goal of: (1) increasing executive gender diversity whether or not it furthers their business mission; (2) mandating their CEO to be a real 'people person' who never says a harsh word to a subordinate; and (3) highlighting with excruciating detail the medical history of their CEO, down to bowel movements and dental records.
I look forward to buying the very interesting products from said company as they adopt this new focus. I'm sure that they will be great, with all the sunshine and daisies and endoscopically-verified unicorns that will go into making them.
Readers, please keep your hard-hitting analysis coming. AAPL should be proud to have shareholders such as yourselves.
Look, this isn't Apple 2.0 we're looking at, it is more like Apple 5.0
Apple 1.0 – Woz and Jobs with the Apple 2
Apple 2.0 – The Early Mac era
Apple 3.0 – Apple w/o Jobs
Apple 4.0 – Apple w Jobs (post NeXT)
So long as Apple continues the tradition of creating "products that don't suck" they'll do just fine.
If they bow to corporate pressure, they may see some short term profits, but they'll tank in the long run.
Comment by Caren: "I can’t count how many articles about Apple & Steve Jobs that you have put out in the last week. Surely with a growing financial crisis, the big 3 car dealers heading for bankruptcy, Bernard Madoff, the low life insider traders busted this past week from Lehman’s and so many more reeally important current news events that are happening by the moment, you would say to yourselves maybe the repetitive reports about Apple and Steve Jobs are enough already."
You have to understand, Caren, Fortune and Wall Street work for Microsoft. Nothing is more important to Wall Street and Microsoft than the destruction of Apple and Google.
I agree that Jony Ive would not be a good choice for CEO: I've met him, and he's a quiet guy, doesn't have the necessary charisma. He's much better at working behind the scenes as he does currently. As for Phil Shiller, I agree with the comment below: a hot-shot marketing person with his own ideas wouldn't put up simply executing Jobs's ideas, as Phil appears to do. I don't see him as CEO material.
I'm just wondering why Fortune has nothing more imporant to write about than Apple and Steve Jobs. Do you have some underlying agenda to constantly attack this company and it's CEO. I can't count how many articles about Apple & Steve Jobs that you have put out in the last week. Surely with a growing financial crisis, the big 3 car dealers heading for bankruptcy, Bernard Madoff, the low life insider traders busted this past week from Lehman's and so many more reeally important current news events that are happening by the moment, you would say to yourselves maybe the repetitive reports about Apple and Steve Jobs are enough already.
Choice Two, Tony Fadell?
He left Apple on November 3rd, 2008!
Editor? Research. Didn't waste time reading the rest if you do not even know who is at Apple.
ex ped: Did you read the intro?
Except for the elimination of one of our favorites (Tony Fadell, who left the team in November) and the disputed appointment of his replacement (Mark Papermaster, whose move from IBM is still tied up in court) — the faces haven’t changed. Rather than repeat the exercise, we simply offer it again, in its original form, below the fold.
Joe, you are a bitter, vindictive person. Jobs probably said your work was crap and fired your sorry butt.
No women or Hispanics? Do you want them promoted because of race or gender? Or would you prefer someone who was promoted for merit?
– Knotty
I'm really disappointed, Philip. You are among the factors that frustrate Apple investors, not Apple managers and Steve Jobs himself.
I agree witht eh following comment – very insightful -
"I for one look forward to Jobs leaving. Having met and worked with him, I can say that he is about the most uncaring and unloving person I have ever met. In all the time at Apple he never spent one cent to help his community or people in need. Seems the only thing he cared about was CA Prop 8 where he spent $100k of the company’s money for a lost cause. Oh, and he did give Gore 30k of stock for some unknown reason.
But he is a clear example how money does not make one happy. I’m sad to say he will die a lonely death. The only nice thing in the paper will be “he made a nice computer”. Too bad he did not use Gates as an example. Now time is out. The good out of this will be others seeing where he failed."
No women, no hispanics. A couple of foreigners. The guy from Philips is not impressive. That is a company that cannot inoovate themselves out of the Netherlands. They don't have the cultural genes. Apple is finished now. The company is Jobs and he is not an intellectual like Gates who has a solid family background and knows how much luck and random achance played in his success. Jobs is artisitic but not human.
A really inappropriate article in very poor taste accentuated with even more inappropriate comments.
With this kind of low quality systematic bashing of one of the best american companies still standing, Fortune magazine has transformed itself into MisFortune rag.
Keep up the "good" WORK.
Is this the least diverse group of people you could imagine to run a company? No wonder it took Apple so long to release the ipod in a color other than WHITE!
Philip W. Schiller is NOT the person to run the company. How he stays in his position is beyond reason. There are many words that describe him: clueless, lacking in talent, non-technical, a legion in his own mind…. The day he takes over is the day I drop all my stock. As an ex-engineer at Apple and having met and worked with him, the thought of him taking over is not a pretty picture.
I for one look forward to Jobs leaving. Having met and worked with him, I can say that he is about the most uncaring and unloving person I have ever met. In all the time at Apple he never spent one cent to help his community or people in need. Seems the only thing he cared about was CA Prop 8 where he spent $100k of the company's money for a lost cause. Oh, and he did give Gore 30k of stock for some unknown reason.
But he is a clear example how money does not make one happy. I'm sad to say he will die a lonely death. The only nice thing in the paper will be "he made a nice computer". Too bad he did not use Gates as an example. Now time is out. The good out of this will be others seeing where he failed.
Apple is in a no-win situation with any of this stuff. Investors cry out for a succession plan, and when they provide it through increasing public stature of Apple's other strong team members, the simple-minded press says it underscores how fragile Apple is without Steve. It's not a very impressive display of uncovering the true strength of Apple's strategy and depth.
I actually think that PED has done a good job of balancing this with very clear upfront statements. The same cannot be said for many other journalists, and the simpleton analysts just parrot the same stupid caution and fear.
It's a real pity but I think that 6 months will clarify the situation, and Apple is going to be in great shape.
There is no diversity in this succession:
No women
No non-caucasian ethnicities
Apple will suffer a similar fate like GM/FORD/CHRYSLER after their founders passed the baton.
So your sources include WikiAnswers and Fake Steve Jobs and Apple's exec bio page? How lazy–this isn't much better than writing from a press release and probably a lot less meaningful.
And, FYI, these guys are not all invisible. If you're at all interested in the tech world, at least three are very visible. While Jobs may not be much of a human being in some ways, he's exceptionally good at picking talent and making sure it can be successful. These guys might not get standing ovations when they walk onstage, but don't think they're not behind the success.
Honestly, go back to J-school and learn how to research before you write this stuff.
You know, if Philip Elmer-DeWitt is just going to rehash his "Who follows Steve" stories from November and June, he should at least take the care to remove the candidates who have left the company, like Tony Fadell. http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/11/04/losing-tony-fadell-the-man-who-made-the-ipod/
Any of the first few have a good shot and could do a good job. Not Ive. As brilliant as Ive is, the best thing to do with him is leave him alone to do what he does best. Brilliant creative types only rarely make good leaders, because they don't have the business acumen or the personality to cross that divide. Nothing against Ive – he's as essential to Apple's success as anyone of the others, arguably more.
This type of journalism is shameful, and is a sad reminder of just how far the quality of Fortune Magazine has fallen; you are now huckstering for pageviews by preying (through backhanded "what if?" faux-innocent musings) on a man's life.
Shameful.
Curious as to why you don't mention the possibility of Jobs declining Appleworld because he may be too sick to attend. Personally I believe Apple has delayed 'handing over the reigns' wayyyy too long. Jobs health is a major concern for stockholders who see him as not only the face of Apple, but _Apple_ itself.
Fortune is enjoying this illness speculation just a little too much. Two cover stories this year and now multiple blog entries every day — it's distasteful.
Just curious. Why no articles about Ellison at Oracle, Ballmer at Microsoft or Chambers at Cisco? Just this rehash over and over. What if.., he lives into his eighties and stays on like Warren Buffet, Redstone or Murdoch? At this point that would be a fresh and interesting article Phil. Maybe, think different…
ex ped: 'Cause this is an Apple blog. I'm happy to leave the succession plans of Oracle, Microsoft and Cisco to those who care.
The British TV reporter who you state "ambushed" Phil Schiller was Ben Cohen, the previous owner of the itunes.co.uk domain. Apple had to sue him to give up the domain. I imagine Apple's PR team knew of his background and had advised Schiller accordingly. I certainly wouldn't make any judgements about Schiller based on the incident.
no question – it's Ive. He is Apple like Jobs. The rest are management types (maybe Forstall or Fidell).
I believe Rahul Sood of VoodooPC should be brought in to run replace Steve when it is time.