Apple, the company that probably had the best image and marketing in the entire world, has just seen its long-time CEO, Steve Jobs, resign due to health concerns.
Please note that I am not an "apple fanboy", and do consider that their products do have flaws, but I very much admire the way the company anticipates, generates, and maintains buzz, curiosity, and even worship for its products. It also maintains a very strong image, and nothing has gone wrong for it in recent years, as it expanded into digital music sales, mobile telephony, and even retail sales, none of which were its core business. It did that at a time when specialization had become the mantra of most companies, that were shedding non-core business. And it succeedeed spectacularly each time, often despite pundits and reviewers' opinions.
The company, and Steve Jobs in particular, has stayed ahead of rivals and mainstream so far. As Steve Jobs was known to be a micro-manager very much involved with product development, the question now is how will Apple evolve?
The next few months should not change much, as the pipeline of new products is well in place, but further down the line, who knows?
What's your opinion about it?
Sept 4 edit: Here is a fairly interesting NYTimes op-ed about Steve Jobs and the influence he had on Apple, mainly due to its unusual personality: NYtimes op-ed Joe Nocera on Steve Jobs
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