If Steve was still around....

[sjleworthy]

...how do you think the landscape of Apple would look today?

Would the company be thriving as it is? Would he have allowed all these current product ranges and technologies into the market place? Would we be seeing new or different product lines by now?
How would he have embraced and dealt with the larger and faster moving industry that exists today?

How would he and Apple have evolved to date i wonder. But wonder is all we can do.

What do you think?

 

[redheeler]

I think we would have the Retina MacBook, large-screen iPhones, and the iPad Pro just as we do now. These products are related to general trends, and Apple must stay competitive.

 

[Beavix]

If Steve Jobs was around there wouldn't be so many bugs in iOS, OS X and watchOS.

 

[MadDane]

I think we would still have the larger screens on the iPhones. The 4k/5k iMacs where inevitable, and so was the MacBook. However, I am not so sure that the Apple Watch would have ever been released. With each release of a completely new product, he always stated why there was a place for this kind of product. Apple never said that with their watch. I also do not think there would be any rumors about a car if he had still been around.

 

[Algus]

The watch had to have been in the lab, though maybe not until after he got sick. I think he would have held it back another year or two if he'd decided to launch it though.

 

[AFEPPL]

Huge internal fighting and politics, possible well on their way back to where they were before he was ousted.

 

[Tech198]

What do you think?

I think there would be a change...

For one, Steve always said he never wanted Apple to do a streaming music service, and as we can all tell from Apple music, there are issues to those affected, so i'd ague was right there..

Photos would be better syncing... in the cloud too

The other side of the story would be, there would be a music streaming service, but if Steve was at Apple, it would be a much better one than already exists.

In effect,,, if Apple knew at current how to do a service like this, there would be zero issuses. or not as bad as they have been, even with the all-in-one cloud stuff..

It's possible..... but they didn't wanna take time to make it work properly.

 

[Kebabselector]

If Steve Jobs was around there wouldn't be so many bugs in iOS, OS X and watchOS.

Yes, because Mobile Me was so perfect

 

[throAU]

I don't think much would be that different.

Steve was not responsible for coding, he was not solely responsible for the industrial design (that is mostly Ive), the logistics was always Tim Cook already anyway.

I suspect that there is still stuff in the pipeline from when Steve was around that the tech was not ready for yet.

I do, however think the keynotes would be a hell of a lot more entertaining.
[doublepost=1452352116][/doublepost]

The watch had to have been in the lab, though maybe not until after he got sick. I think he would have held it back another year or two if he'd decided to launch it though.

I agree it was in the lab, not sure it would have been held back much though.

The original MBA was crap. The original iPad was quite limited. The original iPhone, whilst an awesomely smooth experience compared to the rest, was incredibly limited on release.

Pretty sure steve said something like "real artists ship".
(yup: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Real_Artists_Ship.txt )

Basically, what that means is that if you faff about trying to make something perfect and do everything you want, you'll never ship it.

Get something GOOD, and ship it. Your customers will figure out things you would never have thought of. Listen and put the good ideas into rev n+1.

 

[Beavix]

Yes, because Mobile Me was so perfect

At least MobileMe was a service, not a whole operating system.
There has been an obvious decline in Apple's software quality lately. Read here more opinions on this subject.
[doublepost=1452357406][/doublepost]

The original MBA was crap. The original iPad was quite limited. The original iPhone, whilst an awesomely smooth experience compared to the rest, was incredibly limited on release.

Do you remember that keynote when Steve Jobs pulled out the first Macbook Air from an envelope? Everybody liked it because it was so thin and light. The first iPad was absolutely awesome, I bought it on day one. The first iPhone? Back then I could only think about this: real Internet and email in my pocket = super cool. Now they all seem like crap because there is better tech available.

 

[Kebabselector]

I've not noticed El Capitan or iOS9 having any issues that have affected my use, though I accept for some it can be a problem.

 

[brofkand]

If Steve Jobs was around there wouldn't be so many bugs in iOS, OS X and watchOS.

Leopard was buggier than any OS X release since in my experience, and it was released during Steve's tenure.

Biggest thing that would be different is we wouldn't have Jony in charge of UI design, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how you like the new design language.

 

[nightcap965]

If Steve Jobs were still alive, he'd be saying "Let me out of this box!"

 

[Benjamin Frost]

There would be no Apple Watch. It is a product without a reason.

There would be no Apple Music. People want to own music.

Siri would be relegated to Accessibility and downgraded in importance. It would never be mentioned as a feature.

Beats would never have been bought.

The iPhone line would have been expanded to all markets like the iPod. Market share would be over 60% as opposed to the 15% it has today.

The iPad line would also have been expanded to all markets, and at the same time, the line would be much more focused.

The App Store and iTunes would both have been completely overhauled. Prices would have been cut to compete with Amazon. Games enticing children into gambling addicts with in-app purchases would have been banned. Discoverability of apps would have been transformed. Developers would be much happier and more successful than they are today.

There would be 13" and 15" Retina MacBook Air models.

The iPhone would come in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes. The iPad would offer a 1TB version.

iPad would gain its own branch of iOS called iPadOS. It would feature a flexible file system like the Mac. All iCloud services would be free and offer 1TB of storage.

iTunes Match would come to films and tv. All DVDs ripped would be accessible via streaming and downloadable from all devices. iBooks would be overhauled, syncing would happen properly, prices reduced, and audiobooks would be similarly synced via iCloud.

The iPad Pro would have still come in 13", but the bezels would be much reduced.

Battery life in all iOS devices would be at least 13 hours compared to 10 hours today.

There would have been no political or social activism by Apple or Jobs whatsoever.

The share price would be around $200.

 

[maflynn]

At least MobileMe was a service, not a whole operating system.

Apple released a number of OS's that had some significant bugs, in fact under Steve's watch OS X 10.0 was very bugged filled, he also released products with issue, such as the antenna-gate.

I'm not saying apple was bad under him, but before we deify him, lets have some proper perspective. I've been an apple user since the Macintosh SE and there were times when apple rolled out some products/services that were not the best.

When he returned, he definitely tightened things up and improved the quality but he wasn't perfect.

 

[brofkand]

There would be no Apple Watch. It is a product without a reason.

There would be no Apple Music. People want to own music.

Siri would be relegated to Accessibility and downgraded in importance. It would never be mentioned as a feature.

Beats would never have been bought.

The iPhone line would have been expanded to all markets like the iPod. Market share would be over 60% as opposed to the 15% it has today.

The iPad line would also have been expanded to all markets, and at the same time, the line would be much more focused.

The App Store and iTunes would both have been completely overhauled. Prices would have been cut to compete with Amazon. Games enticing children into gambling addicts with in-app purchases would have been banned. Discoverability of apps would have been transformed. Developers would be much happier and more successful than they are today.

There would be 13" and 15" Retina MacBook Air models.

The iPhone would come in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB sizes. The iPad would offer a 1TB version.

iPad would gain its own branch of iOS called iPadOS. It would feature a flexible file system like the Mac. All iCloud services would be free and offer 1TB of storage.

iTunes Match would come to films and tv. All DVDs ripped would be accessible via streaming and downloadable from all devices. iBooks would be overhauled, syncing would happen properly, prices reduced, and audiobooks would be similarly synced via iCloud.

The iPad Pro would have still come in 13", but the bezels would be much reduced.

Battery life in all iOS devices would be at least 13 hours compared to 10 hours today.

There would have been no political or social activism by Apple or Jobs whatsoever.

The share price would be around $200.

I agree with some of what you said, but I disagree that the iPad would have it's own filesystem like a Mac. Steve was pretty open about killing the Finder in iOS, watch his iCloud keynote.

Also, Siri was a tentpole feature of the iPhone 4S, and Steve was alive for the development of that phone (he passed a day after the keynote). Surely he knew that Siri would be a tentpole feature and would be a big part of the phone experience, not just an accessibility feature.

Steve was also not some generous god when it came to products at Apple; people forget how for years Apple sold purposefully gimped products to meet a price point and protect margins (there's a whole section on Low End Mac for them, called Road Apples). The first one that comes to my mind is the Core Solo Mac mini. The iPod nano was more expensive than the mini it replaced at first, while offering less storage. It wasn't until Apple actually had useful competition that prices dropped.

Steve was the biggest reason why eBooks increased in price (and Apple was sued for this). Why would they be cheaper now if he were alive? Further, it's illegal to rip DVDs so there will never be an iTunes Match for movies.

You sound like you know what you're talking about, but to anyone who knew anything about Steve and his Apple, you haven't a clue. You're just spouting off dreams without reality of what Steve would have done.

I suppose the Product(red) humanitarian project that Apple started under Steve Jobs would be cancelled now, some 10-15 years after he oversaw it's implementation? Come on.

 

[Pakaku]

Biggest thing that would be different is we wouldn't have Jony in charge of UI design, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how you like the new design language.

So, how do we go about bringing Steve back from the dead?

 

[rocknblogger]

The only thing that believe would be different is the UI in both iOS and OS X. I firmly believe that we would have had a more nuanced design with some skuomorfism where appropriate and more cohesive. I think all the icons would have been prettier to look at without all the garish colors.

Oh yeah, the other thing I think would have been different is that Steve would have gotten the Apple TV content deals done. He was without a doubt the kind of man that had the ability to make others say yes even if they didn't really want to.

 

[throAU]

Do you remember that keynote when Steve Jobs pulled out the first Macbook Air from an envelope? Everybody liked it because it was so thin and light. The first iPad was absolutely awesome, I bought it on day one. The first iPhone? Back then I could only think about this: real Internet and email in my pocket = super cool. Now they all seem like crap because there is better tech available.

Yes, I remember.

People being wowed on the keynote doesn't necessarily mean it isn't crap.

It was impressive, yes. But as a device to get work done with it was pretty crap.
Yes the iPhone was "cool". i didn't say it wasn't. It also had no app store, no third party application development kit, every app was expected to be Javascript and HTML. Until after release, Steve gave in and the third party app development was encouraged. The iPhone didn't really take off until the second version (the 3G).

The iPad was down on spec. It was probably the best on release of the above, but still hampered by limited spec.

Now of course they look worse due to better tech, but that's not the point i am making. The point I am making is that the limitations did not stop them from being released (as a beta type product for people to comment on and Apple to iterate improvements on for version n+1).
[doublepost=1452407267][/doublepost]

There would be no Apple Watch. It is a product without a reason.

There are plenty of reasons for the Apple watch, but the tech (battery life, physical size too thick) and applications aren't quite there for most people yet, and/or the price point is a little bit rich vs. the functionality.

But the idea is sound. It's a quick-look type device for situations it is inconvenient to reach for your phone.

As per the original MBA, iPhone and iPad, it is a revision 1 product.

 

[Xenden]

There would be no Apple Music. People want to own music.

Siri would be relegated to Accessibility and downgraded in importance. It would never be mentioned as a feature.

Beats would never have been bought.

Most young poeple do not want to own their music. They use YouTube and Pandora. They don't care. An entire generation of people who have grown up with on demand access to all kinds of music with little to no investment.

Apple's guys where talking about what would be after iTunes when the iPod was a hot item, they knew it was going to go towards streaming. I think even Tony Fadell (sp?) even mentioned this.

Not sure about Beats though. They had to have bought Beats for their streaming tech and Jimmy Iovine.

 

[maflynn]

There would be no Apple Music. People want to own music.

Streaming is where its at, and one major reason Apple bought Beats was because sales for music have have been decreasing. Why spend money 12 dollars or what have you to buy an album when when you can stream much much more for less.

Speaking personally, I'm less apt to buy an album now a days when I can easily pull up the music on Apple Music, Pandora or any other service.

 

[Tech198]

If Steve Jobs were still alive, he'd be saying "Let me out of this box!"

hehe..yep

 

[BenTrovato]

I think we would just have better leadership at Apple - although it's not so bad right now, it's not at that cut throat rate that Jobs commanded. The watch probably would have been delayed by a year or two. Angela Ahrendt probably doesn't get hired. I think with Apple as cash positive as it is today, he probably would have went full force into something else innovative.

 

[EdwardSmith36]

If "STEVE" was still around, we would have experience a drastic change in tech world.

 

[phrehdd]

I believe that if Jobs was around, we would still have hits and misses. - Perhaps just different ones.