The man who dragged Apple out of the doldrums and up to the top of the world in the space of 14 years, Steve Jobs, has quit as company CEO – so how will this affect the iPhone 5 release date? We take a closer look.
Steve Jobs is no longer the CEO of Apple. In his open resignation letter, Jobs revealed that he “could no longer meet [his] duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO” – an evident reference to his persistent health problems that have seen him take a couple of periods of medical leave in recent years.
The man who helped found Apple in 1976, was forced out in 1984 and regained control in 1997 has been the driving force behind one of the world’s biggest and most profitable companies. He’s also the reason we all excitedly check the news feeds every morning to see if the iPhone 5′s coming out yet.
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iPhone 5 delay?
So integral is Steve Jobs to Apple that it might make you wonder what sort of impact his resignation will have on the release of the iPhone 5. The simple answer is: not a jot.
For one thing, Jobs isn’t resigning from Apple – only the day-to-day responsibilities of the demanding CEO role. He will still have a heavy say in how Apple proceeds as company Chairman and director – an influential role that was confirmed swiftly by a grateful Apple board.
Another reason is that Steve Jobs has already given his recommendation for a replacement, which has also been accepted by the board. Indeed, the process of replacing Jobs was instigated long ago, as evidenced by the following exerpt from Jobs’s resignation letter: “As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.”
Tim Cook – ideal candidate
Taking control of Apple will not be difficult for Tim Cook in the slightest. Back in 2004, he took the reigns as CEO for two months while Jobs recovered from major surgery. Since Steve Jobs took his last medical leave of absence back in January, Cook has been acting as COO, which in Jobs’s own works made him “responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations”. That particular shift didn’t seem to do the iPad 2 any harm, did it?
All of this shows that among Steve Jobs’s many talents, his chief one is probably building teams – putting intelligent people in position and letting them do what they do best. This means his legacy at Apple will be a strong future, starting with an extremely strong iPhone 5 launch.
The mains questions will be: how will Apple’s direction change longer term (we’re talking iPhone 6 or even 7 here)? And will Jobs be able to continue with his inspirational presentations? And perhaps most importantly of all: if Tim Cook takes over the presentational responsibilities too, will he wear a turtleneck?
