Thursday, August 25th 2011
Steve Jobs Hangs His Boots as Apple CEO
Regarded as the heart and soul of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs has decided to step down as the CEO of the company, making way for the board-elected Tim Cook to take up the position. This marks a graceful exit of one of the major architects of the technology industry as we know it. "Steve's extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company," notes a company press release. Jobs will stay on as the Chairman of the company he co-founded. His replacement, Tim Cook, has previously served as the COO of the company, with 13 years of service to the company in various positions.A letter written by the outgoing Apple CEO follows.
Sources:
Businesswire, Apple
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
65 Comments on Steve Jobs Hangs His Boots as Apple CEO
www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151073
I'm hoping on the following improvements:
-Return of the Minitower. This has been a cry for years. Apple made it, they were awesome and successful. Then x86 switch happens, and out goes minitower, in comes overpriced brushed metal repackaged G5 that has...not been changed since then. There is a need for non Xeon computers with some expansion ability. There is nothing wrong with an i7 Mac tower, or even i5.
-Return of midrange/high midrange GPUs in Pro laptops. Haven't had this since the last G4 Powerbook.
-Full changeover of low end Macs to AMD CPUs/APUs. They had Intel IGPs at the start, everyone complained so they went NV. Now they are back with SB Macs. Its just time to get rid of it. Keep Intel in the high end but get their crap out of the low end. Lower prices and get more users. This likely wouldn't happen quickly if it did.
-MBAir and Mini, return them to the low end netbook or internet Mac segment. There isn't any reason for them to have left. If people wanted power, buy a Pro. The product lines are too alike.
-Easy upgrade options. We still have some "For Mac" labels out there. Theres still GPUs needing to be flashed to Mac. This shouldn't be. There is no reason Apple can't make it so you don't have to buy overpriced crap from them or go with flashed ebay products.
-Monitors...give us some overpriced average monitors again. They made good stuff back in the day when they made an assortment. You had the high end monitors and the low ends. Not everyone needs a 27+in display.
-Complete overhaul of Mac OSX's OpenGL. Come on, its embarrassing now. Very dated and far behind the performance of Windows. What happened to the initial push and promises of OpenGL catching up with DirectX on OSX? Forgotten because Steve didn't want to do it. Sigh...we should have fought GL like I wanted to and pushed for Rave or Glide.
-Support for technologies PCs have had for years but Macs don't. SLI, Crossfire, Blu-ray, etc.
-Embrace the professional market again. Really what happened to this? Apple used to cater to, and care a lot about Macs in the professional markets. But they've since botched up a lot of their pro user software and refuse to deliver performance that is competitive with Windows. Gadget users didn't keep them in business during the dark times, it was the professionals.
-Finally, new product designs. Stop reusing the same old look over and over. There is no excitement with Apple products anymore. You don't wonder "oo I wonder what they'll think of next!" Every release is just the same boring stuff. Used to get excited for the MW expos to see what the new Mac design would look like, but since x86 switch, gotten to the point I don't even bother to check till a day or two later.
Its a shame how Steve had to leave due to medical reasons. No one should have to go through those types of treatments. But he's been Apple's greatest and worst champion over the years. Really he should have stepped down years ago.
As long as Apple product look good and still carry the elitist feel they are going to sell like hot cakes regardless of the price.
I have come to realize I know a lot of people who either have an iPhone 4 or are pining to get one are going to buy one regardless of explaining (mentioned non apple logo brandishing phone) is better.
could apple change? sure. but they'd have to change their target market to do so...
Does anyone here posting own Apple Stock?
My two cents: I wonder if Apple's recent extreme litigious stance with the rest of the industry has something to do with the fact that they know their future innovation isn't going to be quite what it used to be...
Interesting point (although out of subject) but that is one thing I think will stall innovation in the future. Although its good to protect your stuff, there are some companies out there that use patent trolling just to get money. Everyone is scared to showcase their inventions nowadays, by fear of infringing on somebody else's stuff (even though it has a far, far connection with the invention) I have in mind the recent case that Apple had with some other companies that used number quotations on messaging or text on phones ( e.g you can call the person from a highlighted number in a text message) Apple apparently patented that in the 90's on their computer OS (doesn't have anything to do with phones). They didn't even think bout using that on their phones and when somebody used it, they sued. This is getting really ridiculous sometimes, its gonna keep slowing down innovation that's for sure.
See the video I posted above? If you remember that then you also remember what happen soon after.