✱ Steve Would or Wouldn't Have [Insert bullshit here]
Part of the reason is obvious: Jobs isn’t there anymore. It is rare that a company is so completely an extension of one man’s brain as Apple was an extension of Jobs. While he was alive, that was a strength; now it’s a weakness. Apple’s current executive team is no doubt trying to maintain the same demanding, innovative culture, but it’s just not the same without the man himself looking over everybody’s shoulder. If the map glitch tells us anything, it is that.
Apple has more than $100bn in cash. Its market value of $632bn makes it the biggest company in the world, bigger than any company in US history.
That’s great for Apple’s shareholders. But for customers, who cares? In terms of products, Apple has become the one thing it should never be. Apple has become boring.
Somewhere up there, I can hear Steve screaming.
If Steve Jobs were still alive, would the new map application on the iPhone 5 be such an unmitigated disaster? Interesting question, isn’t it?
As Apple’s chief executive, Jobs was a perfectionist. He had no tolerance for corner-cutting or mediocre products.
When the iPhone 6 comes out (or possibly the iPhone 5S), it will bear the seal of Tim Cook, not Steve Jobs. The same goes for a potential Apple TV. Given the fact that Apple creates product concepts years before actually releasing them, it is highly likely that Steve Jobs has telegraphed his vision of what an Apple TV should be like to Apple’s current executive team. However, Apple’s products often change dramatically between the conceptual and finished stages. And because Steve Jobs can no longer provide input on the Apple TV, the finished product, if it does indeed exist, will be based on how Tim Cook and his lieutenants want it to be, a vision that may very well differ from that of Apple’s co-founder.
Dear “journalists”; please stop.