Danny Novo
Okay, so compare these two photos. The first one is from Macworld, in January 2007. The second is from yesterday, at WWDC. It would appear that Steve Jobs is wasting away. Tell me it doesn’t strike fear into you. I mean, aside from the personal issues that Steve and his family must be experiencing with his health…
I have always known that I would live to see Apple without Steve Jobs at the helm (actually, I did live through the Gil Amelio days, just barely), but the thought of it actually happening frightens the bejeezus out of me.
Anyone else find these pictures striking and worrisome? Anyone know any details?
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Yeah, it’s spooky. It’s always possible he’s on some low calorie diet trip, and Apple even responded to concerns by telling the WSJ that Jobs had caught a “common bug” that’s going around, but to me he is starting to look unhealthy in the same way that Richard Pryor did in his last talk show appearances. Reassurances from Apple PR are about as comforting as those from Soviet PR.
The thing is, without Jobs, Apple is toast. They’d be able to coast for maybe 5 years just on momentum and whatever roadmap he’s charted out, but if his cancer comes back or he drops dead, the stock’s going to tank.
But hey, maybe he’s just thin.
Of course, if he were a model or a rock star we’d assume it was anorexia or heroine addiction; it’s the fact that he had cancer that makes us immediately wonder “is he sick?”
Dude, he is wasting away. Someone on the AppleInsider forums posted a better photo comparison of Steve Jobs last year vs. yesterday. Check it, and tell me he isn’t going to be out of the top job within six months.
I think your comparison here is better, actually. Regardless of what happens to Apple the company with Steve’s passing (from the job), the real shame will be that nobody — and I mean nobody — rocks the mock turtleneck like our boy Steve.
Fact is, Jon Ive will still be around, and he’s always struck me as the real driver of all things design. Steve’s the veto guy. The iPhone will still be just as cool with or without Steve, and if you believe him, the pipeline at Apple is full of all sorts of goodies. I don’t want to consider an Apple without Jobs, but it’s going to happen sooner or later.
I’m of the mind that once Jobs goes, Apple goes. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your team of artists and engineers is; once their singular driving force is gone, so too is their focus, their enthusiasm, their will to do great things, their vision. They may ride on their momentum for a decade, but without Jobs, Apple is basically done as a purveyor of the insanely great.
I suppose you’ve both seen this by now?
Yeah, I’ve seen it, and I’m all for Forstall. Young, charismatic, energetic, with Leopard and the iPhone software as proof he can get it done. I like reading in the article you mention that he is Steve’s first choice.
I seem to recall Forstall coming on stage and making a presentation during one of the keynotes and having that same thought — that he seemed Jobsian. But a lot of things need to happen exactly right, not the least of which is that he really would need to be, like Jobs, a once-in-a-lifetime visionary … for the second time. But he would also need to survive the palace coup that would go down if Jobs died. Apple would be ransacked from within by all the people who secretly loathe Jobs and think they know better, most of whom are probably more evil and tenacious than Forstall. The chances of Apple surviving and thriving are basically zero, but they could certainly go on like Disney sans Disney — huge growth, massive stock price increases … and 40 years of sub-par bore-fest products that don’t matter. Shit like Bambi II.
I think the dark years — the Beige Age — turned me into a hopeless pessimist on this issue, but I secretly remain hopeful that Apple can survive based on sheer momentum long enough for it to no longer matter. The Internet seems to be bastardizing the notion of a computer platform as we know it, even if we’re still at the early stages, and any sort of Apple product in this area would have to be more tolerable than Adobe’s push for a Flash-based interntet.