Hi Gene Steinberg:
I wonder whether the “heavy lifting” that you mention means that Cook is simply carrying out the Jobian plan mechanically, not introducing any substantive vision/methodology of his own that would be on the same creative level as Jobs,’ because it could mean that he, Cook, is simply carrying out future plans already laid out by Jobs and, once the Jobian roadmap runs out, Cook would need to splice his own in at that point in the future.

It is this at very juncture that problem could arise as Apple’s history has shown that a replacement does not do well, yes? But this time, with Cook, it seems different in that he seems to have been closely groomed and shaped by Jobs’ supervision, which did not occur when Jobs put previous CEOs in charge. I can only hope that Cook is indeed different from them, and way better.

@ win39: “The pundits have never thought Apple is unsuccessful and going to fail, it is just wishful thinking and if their writing about it can help it along so much the better.”

And the weird thing? They were often using Macs to write their epitaphs.

@ win39: An agenda? Didn’t want to touch the conspiracy aspects, but I think some of what I wrote has to convey that possibility.

Peace,
Gene

I think you have it wrong concerning the reasons why. It is not incompetence. It is political hostility, pure and simple. It goes back to the founding with two kids in a garage building the first personal computer as opposed to the guy with family money buying his way to a business. It goes back to the first Mac with the slogan that it was the computer for the rest of us. It was the anti-IBM commercial. MS became the darling of business, and business pundits, and they have predicting the failure of Apple from the beginning, over and over, not because it was close to failure, but because they hated it. Employee benefits for partners of gay employees at Apple raised the antipathy meter even higher. Apple pushing innovations that were copied by the PC industry just rubbed salt in the wound. It was the use of design. Bright colors. The iPod. How dare they! The pundits have never thought Apple is unsuccessful and going to fail, it is just wishful thinking and if their writing about it can help it along so much the better.

@ John Dingler: As a practical matter, Cook is already doing a lot of the heavy lifting over there, so that move may already be in progress.

Peace,
Gene

Hi Gene,
I love being an Apple enthusiast; Apple befuddles the best minds, the worst Apple haters, and makes lovable but powerful products.

On another topic, should Tim Cook replace Jobs, let’s hope that the vision that gives birth to inspired products continues, but I am afraid the Jobian vision is Jobian only, and will lessen as time goes on, likely not to be replaced by one that is as creative and commercially successful.

@ Yacko: It’s a nice job if you can get one. Too bad there are no tests to determine if the expert knows what he or she is talking about.

Peace,
Gene

This is all much ado about nothing. What experts are we talking about? There are software, hardware, networking experts. Experts in aerospace and weapons. Animation experts. Musical production experts. Food research experts and food safety experts. It’s a planet full of experts. But the experts you speak of are none of these, right? They are financial experts, an oxymoron if there ever was one, just one step more credible than bigfoot or astrology experts. Just move on and ignore.