Shifting Jobs

by Matteo Balocco

Mentre eravamo tutti impegnati a valutare l’iPad, qualcuno ha notato dei messaggi tra le righe del keynote di Jobs. Qualcosa che farebbe pensare a un prossimo addio:

I have no knowledge of any such information, nor am I making a prediction. I’m just offering my take on what I saw. And I saw several telltale signs that Steve Jobs may be on his way to relinquishing his CEO role at Apple. Here are my thoughts.

  1. Jobs went out of his way to point out that Apple is a $50 billion company.
  2. There were a couple of historical references, including the great black-and-white photo of Jobs and Woz and the first PowerBook.
  3. Though they weren’t necessarily presented in this manner, that sounds a lot like personal legacy to me. Reading between the lines, the unspoken message is “I’ve turned this garage band into one of the most powerful companies in the world today.”
  4. With one quick comment and supporting slide, Jobs made a major strategic shift and repositioned Apple as a mobile products company, which has a much more exciting future than computers.
  5. He also made a clear effort to convince the media in attendance that they could sell this device. The subtle message is that if they can get traction on the iPad while growing or maintaining the other three product lines, they can succeed well into the future without him.
  6. Schiller and Forstall played pretty significant roles in the iPad announcement and Jobs is nowhere to be found in the announcement video. Neither of these unprecedented, but noteworthy nonetheless.

My gut tells me that the earnings and iPad announcements this week was the first real indication that the public reveal of Apple succession is underway. (Patrick Hunt)