What if Steve Jobs dies? What will happen to Apple?

[new$]

Henry Ford died.

 

[zgtrader]

Quote from new$:

Henry Ford died.

Ford is not Apple.

Having used various Macs for most of the 90s, before Jobs returned, I can say it will not be good times. Only one man can run that company. <period>

 

[NY0BScalper]

Quote from new$:

Henry Ford died.

Is that a call for AAPL to be trading at 2.19?

 

[Rabbitone]

When leaders of organizations die, leave or are sidelined- investors flee. Investors know longer feel confident that the vision the company uses to produce profits will continue to work. They are scared that remaining management will fight for power and destroy the company’s profits in the process while a new vision is worked out. Apple is no exception. Much of the current innovation of Apple today comes from Steve Jobs vision for the company. This may be why the stock is testing the recent lows. Institutions may be heading for the exits.

 

[bugscoe]

Quote from zgtrader:

Ford is not Apple.

Having used various Macs for most of the 90s, before Jobs returned, I can say it will not be good times. Only one man can run that company. <period>

I think Apple is a liitle different today (even without Jobs) then they were in the early-mid 90's.

 

[tmarket]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/technology/companies/16apple.html?em

In their moments of great anxiety, Apple fans look back to the late ’80s and early ’90s for a glimpse of Apple without Mr. Jobs. After he was ousted in a boardroom coup in 1985, Apple actually thrived for several years, unveiling the first Mac with a color screen, the PowerBook laptop and QuickTime, which broke ground in bringing video to personal computers.

But then, to the horror of its diehard fans, Apple withered. Its stock fell 68 percent from its 1991 peak to Mr. Jobs’s triumphant return in 1996.

In the meantime, three chief executives came and went, and Apple’s core product, the Macintosh, did not evolve as fast as computers based on Microsoft Windows.

Part of the problem, say people who were at Apple during the lean years, could be traced back to Mr. Jobs himself: he had not allowed anyone with talents similar to his own to rise at the company. Some think that may also be true today.

“Steve’s personality is such that he had not brought up other people who could do what he does. He’s the kind of person who pushes away people who are like himself,” said Ted Kaehler, who worked on the original team that developed the first graphical user interface at the research center known as Xerox Parc, and he later worked at Apple in the ’80s.

But some Apple watchers are reluctant to use the past as a guide. Andrew Hertzfeld, who helped develop the original Macintosh and now works at Google, says that Apple has had 12 more years under Mr. Jobs’s leadership to soak up his unique values.

He also notes that products already in the pipeline — which analysts say may include new iMacs and smaller iPhones — already bear Mr. Jobs’s imprint and can sustain Apple for years to come. “It will take half a decade for the absence of Steve to really show up in the products,” Mr. Hertzfeld said.

Some think Mr. Jobs’s imprint on Apple could last even longer, perhaps for decades, even if for some reason he is unable to come back in June. James W. Breyer, an influential Silicon Valley venture capitalist, sits on the board of Wal-Mart and says the values of its founder, Sam Walton, still drive the retailer 17 years after his death.

“I can’t recall a board meeting where Sam’s spirit and contribution have not been cited in some way,” Mr. Breyer said. “In the same way, I expect Steve Jobs, through his genius, will always represent the DNA of Apple.”

 

[IShopAtPublix]

Quote from acerbits:

Apple is not innovative and it's R&D is not more capable than any other major IT business. Apple's strategy is to market technology like fashion and they NEED STEVE for that reason. Steve makes shit smeel like parfume and Garbage look like a masterpiece.

Exactly right. Apple is about perceived "coolness" more than substance. Apple stores are in a way electronics boutiques. Cult of personality of Steve Jobs along with apple fanboys propel Apple forward.

The funny part about apple is that macs gained market share after they became less mac. Sure people bring up OSX but the more important things is that for several years now Macs are powered by Intel processors, something PCs had forever. Macs used to be expensive incompatible things using weird hardware. Now they are just expensive.

Personally, I don't want one man deciding what hardware and software I use.

 

[Susannah]

Quote from Rabbitone:

When leaders of organizations die, leave or are sidelined- investors flee. Investors know longer feel confident that the vision the company uses to produce profits will continue to work. They are scared that remaining management will fight for power and destroy the company’s profits in the process while a new vision is worked out. Apple is no exception. Much of the current innovation of Apple today comes from Steve Jobs vision for the company. This may be why the stock is testing the recent lows. Institutions may be heading for the exits.

You can see if the institutions are heading for the exits:

http://www.mffais.com/aapl.html

 

[Landis82]

Quote from Port1385:

I want to turn this into a positive situation and have shorted Apple in the hopes of making a profit. I hope the best for Steve, but hope will not help him right now.

He is way too sick and ill at this point. He is at the point of no return.

You are the one that is SICK, my friend.
And kharma will be a bitch.
You can count on it.

 

[nukethewhales31]

Quote from acerbits:

Apple is not innovative and it's R&D is not more capable than any other major IT business. Apple's strategy is to market technology like fashion and they NEED STEVE for that reason. Steve makes shit smeel like parfume and Garbage look like a masterpiece.

have you used a new apple? use one and tell my the G6 does rock the shit out of a new windows desktop.... my office tradestation is a MultiDisplay G6 that runs windows in VMWARE FUSION with MT4 all my indicators loaded metric tons of statistical software .. honestly if it was a windows desktop there would be no way it would even be 1/2 as functional i dont have the technical issues people have I never crash... i can roll back deleted or mistakenly deleted files sorted by time stamped date in order on multiple dates and thats saved me more times then i can count... look at vista its broken microsoft is pretty much discounting and not fixing like the normally do. its not garbage i have a laptop a new macbook from 2 years ago i think... ive dropped it down the stairs .... can a 2 year old spill apple juice on it left it in my car in sweltering heat .. in fridged cold i had it on the bar down stairs in the basement and a water pipe literally burst on top of it ... it now has a water mark on the screen a small one can barely tell it dims occasionally but this think is a tank it has 512 meg memory and it runs VMWARE FUSION with windows xp and mac at the same time and it runs windows better than windows runs windows. it should be embarrassing to microsoft that their competitor can make their software run better then they can more efficiently and safer with less security holes lol.

point is they dont market garbage their products are number one and yes they did suck before but if you think steve jobs has anything to do with the products being higher end than its competitors your mistaken apple has readopted innovation they have been through bad times they know what works and what doesnt at this point they sell themselves i bought my first mac for college 4 years ago and didnt even know who steve jobs was.. i just knew i liked it.