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Americas iconic company has lost its superstar CEO;what comes
next
Thirty-five years after starting Apple,cancer has forced Steve
Jobs to step
down as the CEO of Americas most iconic company.Theres no other
large
listed company in the US,or possibly anywhere else in the
world,whosesuccesses have been associated with one man.Jobs and
friend Steve Wozniak
who founded Apple,brought out the first personal computers and
the first
portable one,but more than that,they pioneered a design and
development
culture that seemed to click instantly with consumers
wants.There have been
mp3 players before the iPod and tablets before the iPad,but Jobs
insisted
that people didnt know what they wanted and he could surprise
them with
better and smarter stuff.He made sure this mantra worked,again
and
again.Apple realised his value between 1987 and 1996 when Jobs
was exiled
from his company by a CEO recruited from PepsiCo.In his
absence,Apple
floundered,lost most of its value and Jobs was brought back to
rescue the company.The iMac,iBook and iPod
followed each other in the next five years.By 2010,when a
visibly ill Jobs launched the iPad,Apple had
overtaken Microsoft as the most valuable tech company on the
planet.Will Apple,which briefly overtook
ExxonMobil to become Americas most valuable company this
month,continue to grow under new CEO Tim
Cook Many believe that it can: Jobs could be rude and abrupt,but
he had a bunch of fanatically loyal people
working with him.Many are likely to stay on with Cook.The
culture of design innovation,secrecy about new
products and proprietary technology will continue.But there are
chinks in Apples armour.Its not a particularly
great innovator,relying,instead,on design,functionality and
branding to charge huge markups for its
products.Increasingly,to fend off rivals like Google,it has had
to resort to costly patents lawsuits.Japanese and
Korean rivals are snapping at its heels;Indian and Chinese
companies will follow.Gadget makers know thatmarket leadership can
change faster than you can say Nokia.Apple under Jobs played its
hand well,but the
going is bound to get tougher without its charismatic
leader.
Apple Started Up in a Garage
The duo set about creating a cult brand think
Mac,iMac,iPod,iPhone,iPad that today has
a cash pile larger than the forex reserves of developed
countries such as
Canada,Sweden,Norway and Spain.Apple started up in a garage in
Jobs home in Los
Altos,California.The company was founded with a seed money of
$1,300,which camefrom the sale of Jobs Volkswagen van and Wozniaks
scientific calculator.Wozniak wrote
later in his biography that he joined Jobs because even if Apple
closed down,both could
boast to their grandchildren that they started a company.They
started a gold
mine.Apple today has cash assets of more than $76 billion,and
revenues of over $65
billion! This year the company is expected to gross over $100
billion,growing at 82% in a
receding US economy.Not bad for a man who had enrolled in a
calligraphy class,used to eat free meals at the
Hare Krishna Temple,and did odd jobs for pocket money.Jobs later
said his dropping out of college allowed
him to learn calligraphy,which helped users get better styled
fonts in Apple computers.Born to Abdulfattah
Jandali,a Syrian professor at University of Wisconsin,Jobs was
placed for adoption soon after his birth.He was
adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs,and discovered his biological
parents only after he was 27.At the helm of Apple
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Inc,Jobs created products that have disrupted many sectors at
the same
time.The Apple I and II led IBM to start production of
PCs.Launched in
2002,the iPod has almost killed the MP3 player market and the
earlier
dominant personal stereo players,dominated by Sony. The
iPhone
disrupted the smartphone market.Players such as Samsung,Nokia
have
been forced to compete with Apple on touch phones,though without
huge
success.Launched last year,the iPad is now threatening to
disrupt the PC
industry in developed markets.In the US,the personal computer
market is declining at the rate of about 5.6%
due to the rise of the iPad,which has eaten about 11% of the
American PC market.The iPad has sold almost 30
million units since its launch last year.It's expected to sell
double that number in 2011. The iPhone and iPad
now account for 68% of Apples $100-billion business,which will
now be run by
COO Tim Cook.Almost 38 years after his India visit,cancer-struck
Jobs has clearly
enlightened the world with a glimpse into the future of
technology.Apple fans
back home,however,would be wishing that his visit to the country
for meaning in
the early 70s would have happened in the new India.Jobs might
have still not
found enlightenment,but Apple consumers looking for its products
soon afterlaunch as well as those dying to work for the iconic
brand would have stood a
better chance than they do today.
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool
I've ever encountered to help me make the big
choices in life," Jobs said during a Stanford commencement
ceremony in 2005.
"Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all
pride, all fear of
embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the
face of death,
leaving only what is truly important."
"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to
avoid the
trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already
naked. There is
no reason not to follow your heart."
