Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Future of Apple Without Jobs


We remember October 5, 2011, just barely a month ago, when Steve Jobs, Apple Co-Founder and innovative revolutionary passed away.  The man who was kicked out of the company he started, brought a new company up from the rubble, and then came back to save the company he was kicked from in the first place.

Now that a month has passed and the iPhone 4S has been released, and gotten great reviews all around, we wonder:  what will the future of Apple look like without Jobs?
A visionary, a leader, a genius; Steve Jobs has been, and still is, called all of these things.  Whether it's from the invention of the iPod and it's family of gadgets, the Macbooks, or the Mac OS, Apple products are used by almost every single person on a daily basis.

His management of Apple was in the realm of perfectionism.  In fact, it may have even been the definition of perfectionism.  Jobs strove year-in, year-out to create perfect products.  He wanted to make products that were beautiful on the inside and outside and would stop at nothing to achieve the perfect design.  He had many ideas of the perfect design, and even is quoted as saying:

“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn't what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked." - Steve Jobs

With his simplistic, ease-of-use designs Steve Jobs created what many believe to be the best computers of today as well as the computers of tomorrow.  Macbooks sell like hotcakes constantly, and the iPads, iPods, and iPhones are no different.  People are more than willing to hand over their hard-earned cash for any one of these products.

Now something has changed within Apple.  With Steve Jobs' passing, what will become of the company?  He has left designs for products years in the making, but is there a single person out there who can manage a team as diligently and passionately as Steve did?  Will the company continue to push for perfection as Steve did, or will they dwindle off without the passion of Jobs?

I personally think we can expect the same quality products that Steve was helping create.  While his designs for the next iPads, iPhones, and iPods will be used, the management will come into effect.  If the passion and perfectionism isn't there, we may have just lose Apple.  Is there anyone that can take his place?

While we all ponder these questions, I'll leave you with a quote from the late Steve Jobs.  We should all take this into consideration; after all, life is what you make it.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” - Steve Jobs

Do you think that Apple will falter because of the loss of Jobs, or do you think that someone can bring that same brilliance back to the company? Let me know your thoughts below.

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