Remembering Steve Jobs, Who Passed Away 12 Years Ago Today

[Amerrican]

I believed in Steve Jobs. I invested in Steve Jobs. Not long after he returned to Apple from Next, I bought thousands of shares of Apple Computer at an average of about $16/share. Never expected what was ahead, but attended MacWorld every January for years. Sold out of most of my Apple less than a year after Steve died – with a greater than 5000% profit. I had a separate successful media career. But his genius changed my life in so many ways. Including my three homes in retirement – North Carolina, Chicago, and Hawai’i. Thanks Steve!

 

[Abazigal]

RIP a true visionary. Selfishly wish he was around so we wouldn't get iPhone 11xyz with 2% more rounded corners every year. Man, he just had the gift of invention, or at the very least marketing something old as new and innovative. It really makes me wonder what we would all be using today and if he would really be proud that Apple turned into the villain in the 1984 ad.

Different people are needed at different points of Apple’s history. My guess is that even if Steve Jobs were still alive, he would likely have stepped side by now, having fully handed the reins of the company over to Tim Cook. Whatever his thoughts are on the way Apple turned out would have been irrelevant.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Different people are needed at different points of Apple’s history. My guess is that even if Steve Jobs were still alive, he would likely have stepped side by now, having fully handed the reins of the company over to Tim Cook. Whatever his thoughts are on the way Apple turned out would have been irrelevant.

They would've had to drag him out of the place.

 

[Abazigal]

They would've had to drag him out of the place.

I think one of the traits of a good leader is recognising when you are out of your league, and willingly hand over the company to someone else with a skillset better suited to running the company.

The Apple of today is not concerned about competing with Microsoft, Google or Samsung. That war is over and Apple has long pulled away from the competition. Instead, Apple’s biggest challenges are protectionist governments, dealing with cross-straits tensions and navigating an increasingly politically-divisive world.

In this regard, Steve Job’s temperament feels closer to Elon Musk than to Tim Cook, and that would be a liability in today’s world. I highly doubt Steve Jobs would have had the patience to manage Donald Trump or Elon Musk as skilfully as Tim Cook has, or the political savvy to manage delicate tensions between China and US.

It’s testament to Tim Cook, that Apple, arguably one of the most political companies in the world, has somehow managed to stay above the political fray (see how Disney got into political bickering with Ron Desantis, and to what end?).

Different people are needed at different parts of a company’s history. Steve Jobs and Tim Cook were each the right person for his era. Looking at how dysfunctional the other tech companies are, I am just glad there is a steady hand at Apple’s helm.

 

[spinedoc77]

Different people are needed at different points of Apple’s history. My guess is that even if Steve Jobs were still alive, he would likely have stepped side by now, having fully handed the reins of the company over to Tim Cook. Whatever his thoughts are on the way Apple turned out would have been irrelevant.

I doubt he would have fully stepped aside, similar to how Bill Gates kept some hold of the company after stepping down as CEO. Granted Jobs would be what 68ish now, so he'd probably think about stepping down around now, or maybe not. Hell look at Warren Buffet, 92 and still going strong. Of course that's based on absolutely nothing but my opinion, who knows what would have happened, it just seems like Apple was Jobs' soul and Apple's identity was very strongly tied to Jobs.

I'd take it a step further and say that Jobs is much more needed at this time in Apple's history. No, not for profits sake's as Cook is a great CEO in that regard, but for innovation. I get it, the pinnacle of success for a profit driven company is... profit, but at the same time innovation and fresh ideas are also important. Cook doesn't seem to have that vision, the whole Apple car thing seems to be floundering, the Vision Pro may only succeed after many years and that's very arguable, and otherwise he is relying on all the past innovation of the iPhone, MacOS, and turning everything into a subscription. I hold a nice amount of Apple stock so I'm certainly pleased with Cook's performance, but as a customer I have no plans to buy any of their products/services in the near future.

 

[dlopan]

“Developers, developers, developers”

With him, they might be selling double as many phones lol

The phones would work better