Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO. Tim Cook takes the reins.

The Apple Daemon takes his seat in Olympus

Kenyo Smalling, Staff Writer

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple”s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple”s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Steve Jobs and Tim Cook

I always say that people invest in people. We’ve seen the tremendous outpour for Opposition Leader Jack Layton since his tragic passing. Although Steve Jobs is very much still with us, Apple’s face has been ripped off–“effective immediately”; it feels like death in the Macworld. We weren’t all prepared.

I wrote in my previous article, that Apple branding is built on the people piece. Its image was centered on the way people felt using Mac products, and the way the products evoked a particular exclusiveness. We loved the way Jobs introduced the products. We looked forward to seeing him.

Steve Jobs is important because he was always at the helm of something revolutionary since Mac’s original platform release Video ‘1984’:

Why is Jobs important? Just follow the timeline. Macintosh—1984, iPod—2001, iPhone—2007, iPad—2010 and the shares were sure to follow. In a 2007 interview with CNBC, Jobs said of the iPhone and the cell phone market, “One of the biggest motivations for working so hard for a few years to make a new product is you want one yourself… its a category that needs to be reinvented.”

Besides being an iconic CEO, he is a top-notch spokesperson. There is no single individual that has larger market recognition. To compete with Jobs in the public eye is to be an army of Agent Smith’s facing Neo.

Tim Cook takes the reins as CEO of Apple Inc., but can he succeed in trying to fill ‘daddy’s’ shoes? He no doubt shares many hats much like his predecessor (both on other boards: Jobs—Pixar; Cook—Nike). He also can and has handled the role many times during Steve’s medical absences.

Jobs said in the now popular interview with CBS 60 minutes that, “If you manage the top line: your strategy, your people and your products, the bottom line will follow.” Tim Cook is noted and may even be regarded as Apple’s bottom line man, saving the company tremendous amounts when he joined in 2007, trimming large amounts of fat and closing down unnecessary production in many countries around the world.

But can he really be the top-line man? The CEO designation is the big question of course, but I have a different one, who will be the face of Apple? Who will be the nerd-king? A front-runner could no doubt be Apple’s Senior VP of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive, confidently considered one of the world’s smartest designers.

He has been responsible for the creative design of many of Apple’s marquee products. Jobs cast a large shadow, probably too large for anyone to overcome; the people piece may now be out of the question. If not the people piece, then the product piece should definitely be the front of the company.

Cook has vowed that nothing will change in the way the company operates. In his memo, he states, “I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values.” This will likely be true as his mentor, Jobs, still continues at the company in a new capacity as Chairman of the Board alongside Al Gore and the other Apple Gurus.

Cook also continues to say, “Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that — it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.”

Although there is much promise in Cook and the rest of the Apple team, going in the same direction may be more difficult than Cook is making it out to be. The market has already become cloudy and investors are thinking twice about Apple. Unlike gas prices, the value of a company goes down when something bad happens.

Furthermore, this all comes at a time of uncertainty with the release of iCloud and the expansion of many of Apple’s products and software. Get ready Timmy; hard times are ahead of us. It may be tough, but you learnt from the best.

ARB Team
Arbitrage Magazine
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