Steve Jobs Hangs His Boots as Apple CEO

[btarunr]

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.

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

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Volkszorn88]

gg

 

[Mussels]

the question now, is does apple go uphill or downhill now that jobs has left?

 

[HossHuge]

This is old news.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151073

 

[NC37]

Depends on Cook. On the plus side, maybe we'll get some actual innovation again instead of the same designs for the past few years. Yeah Jobs was great and did wonderful things when he came back. Original iMacs were iconic and marked a great shift, but he took a great company and turned it into a monopolistic monstrosity. Stifled creativity, and went borderline paranoid.

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.

 

[Red_Machine]

People credit him with everything Apple has ever done. All he did, really, was rubber-stamp it and launch it at the expo.

 

[wolf]

wow didn't see this coming... I do wonder how it will affect their product lineup.

 

[reverze]

Rest in peace to those who died producing the iphone in inhuman conditions.

 

[Widjaja]

Bah he has left his legacy.
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.

 

[Andrei23]

Steve Jobs is dead, long live Samsung!

 

[Mussels]

Depends on Cook. On the plus side, maybe we'll get some actual innovation again instead of the same designs for the past few years. Yeah Jobs was great and did wonderful things when he came back. Original iMacs were iconic and marked a great shift, but he took a great company and turned it into a monopolistic monstrosity. Stifled creativity, and went borderline paranoid.

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.

just wanted to comment on that one bit - there certainly is a problem with non xeon, the mac fanboys love the prestige of saying the mac hardware is better. they dont realise there is no difference between an i7 and a xeon performance wise, but they want to feel justified about the price they paid for it by thinking its superior.

could apple change? sure. but they'd have to change their target market to do so...

 

[Red_Machine]

Actually, the current Mac Pros use Nehalem i7's/

 

[pr0n Inspector]

Thread gone to shit in no time at all. Good job everyone.

 

[Mussels]

Actually, the current Mac Pros use Nehalem i7's/

really? i wasnt aware of that. i know one friend who uses macs, and he rants about how its a xeon, and xeons are just better. and faster. and so on.

 

[pr0n Inspector]

really? i wasnt aware of that. i know one friend who uses macs, and he rants about how its a xeon, and xeons are just better. and faster. and so on.

Because it's a lie.

 

[Mussels]

Because it's a lie.

nehalem mac is a cake?

 

[Red_Machine]

Ah, my bad. Last time I looked I saw "Nehalem" and "Westmere" and my mind added i7 to that.

 

[assaulter_99]

I saw a documentary on him, the rumors are that he is ill, he has lost a lot of weight and he kept being on sick leave. As much as people hate him, he had great visions for Apple. He had the eye for stuff that people wanted, that would sell like hit cakes. One moment I won't forget is when he came for his second tenure, his video conference live with Bill Gates (at the time, he hated him like...) people at first thought it was a joke lol. He managed to take a company from the brink and turned it around thanks to a lot of good products.

 

[Red_Machine]

He managed to take a company from the brink and turned it around thanks to a lot of good products.

That and Microsoft buying about a 60% stake in the company...

 

[TheMailMan78]

I see a return of the clones in a few years now.

 

[assaulter_99]

That and Microsoft buying about a 60% stake in the company...

Of course! Back then, Apple was broke. I'm not a fan of Apple, but credit is due where its due! The company is raking in more money than their creditors now!

 

[jsfitz54]

Apple Stock

Does anyone here posting own Apple Stock?

 

[assaulter_99]

Does anyone here posting own Apple Stock?

I don't, but now would be a good time to buy some. 5% fall today, and knowing apple and their cranking of products (they seem to cheat nowadays, you get out something without X option, and get the second gen out later with X option but with a premium, anyways its the way business is done nowadays) and their sheep following, its bound to be profitable.

 

[mdm-adph]

I saw a documentary on him, the rumors are that he is ill, he has lost a lot of weight and he kept being on sick leave.

Rumors? I thought it was pretty much common knowledge that the man was dying of recurring pancreatic cancer.

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...

 

[assaulter_99]

Rumors? I thought it was pretty much common knowledge that the man was dying of recurring pancreatic cancer.

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...

I don't know, I just watched a doc on him (was forced to due to a course in economics) I'm not a follower!

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.