Tuesday 20 August 2013

Future of Apple without Steve Jobs


 For a brief period of time Apple has been able to dethrone Exxon Mobil from the number one position in terms of market capitalization to become the most valuable company. Apple’s stock price has varied between $705.07 and $385.10 from Aug’12 to Aug’13 (a 45 percent change) and it clearly shows swing in the sentiments of investors. Now everybody has started asking the obvious questions about the future of Apple. Will Tim Cook and company be able to come up with the visionary products that catch the fancies of the customers? Will they continue to lead the technology market? Is the leadership at Apple as effective as the leadership of Steve Jobs?

A couple of decades ago Apple was just an overpriced beige box manufacturer with an obsolete operating system. Michael Dell had once said that the company should be sold as scrap and the money returned to its shareholders. But Steve’s return was marked by a unique vision. He lead a team of immensely talented engineers to create the future market for iPod+iTunes, iPad and iPhone.  Now Apple is the new Microsoft and it controls everything from the hardware to the operating systems to the apps. It has become the number one technology company in the world. There is no company which can match the style, design sense, attention to detail, marketing and manufacturing precision of Apple.

 Times have changed. Apple can no longer profit at the same pace in saturated markets. To keep the behemoth breathing and killing, Apple needs to create a new market- a virgin territory, a new gold rush. It appears that wearable gadgets may be the answer. Apple has been registering the ‘iWatch’ trademark across the world. The most important feature of the gadget is the ability to see new messages without taking the phone out of one's pocket. Tim Cook, Jonhathan Ive and Co. are very brilliant and capable people. But the question is, can they do it without the Wizard of Oz, the snake oil salesman and the amazingly brilliant Steve Jobs?
In recent times Apple has undergone a significant brand makeover, shaking off some of unpleasant characteristics associated with Jobs and taking on bits of the personality of its new leader, Tim Cook. By contrast, Apple from the outside has appeared more open under Cook, thanks to a number of meetings and trips to appeal to the various stakeholders i.e.consumers, investors, politicians etc. iPhone 5’s Maps app was marred by flaws such as missing features, misplaced businesses, landmarks and even towns as soon as it hit the stores. Cook apologized for this error publicly and with surprising humility which could have never been expected from Steve Jobs.
Apple has nothing much on the product horizon and new products are not expected until 2014. There is nothing to lure the investors or customers but Cook, Jonathan Ive and their latest signing Paul Deneve, the CEO of luxury goods house Yves Saint Laurent Group, are together capable enough to bring back the favorable sentiments. A constructive and sensible use of cash pile can do wonders for the company .Let us hope that Apple does not have same fate as Sony, a wonderful company, with appealing products and awesome design, but still struggling to sell phones tablets and computers just like any other company.   
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Contributed by : Sushant Singh;PGP 2013-15. He can be reached at pgp13115.sushant@iimraipur.ac.in

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