TJ Crawford's Abstract Ideas

Let me get this out of the way up front. I LOVE APPLE PRODUCTS! I have used, owned and defended many apple products since my college days. Then it was Quadra's in school and my first purchase was a PowerMac 7100 AV. I currently own an AppleTV, iPad, iPod touch and 3 other versions of the iPod.

With that said let me talk about my reservations about Apple products long term, specifically in a post Steve Jobs Apple. Steve is a visionary that has brought apple back from the brink and really transformed it into a consumer devices and software company. They just also happen to sell those desktop and laptop computers still.

Working in the tech space it is interesting to glean tidbits of information through the various interviews. In several occasions I have heard of Steve being the guy that envisioned a product or technology. In his D8 interview he talks about the technology behind their iPhone, iPod and iPad devices and how he realized & envisioned the resulting product suite starting with the phone (see below). By the way this was all brought about by the want to produce a tablet that undoubtedly has roots in their early efforts of the newton.

Also in the Product Management book Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love the author (Marty Cagan) sites Steve as being one of the most gifted Product Managers he has seen. There are many other references here to Steve being the GUY that dreams Apples' cool stuff up. This is really refreshing in a day and age of CEO's being the financial guy or the operations guy and even when they are strategy people they don't dream up the product that often.

This brings me to the question and possibly point. When Steve is no longer able to serve Apple, who will take the innovation reigns? Sure they can find a CEO but who will innovate and bring us these cool products. To date I have seen little of any successor. There are appearances by several VP's in their marketing videos with VP of iPhone Marketing, Senior VP of iOS Software, Senior VP of Hardware & Senior VP of Design (guy with the great British accent). With Steve's health issues a while back I'm sure Apple is aware and working on this but it doesn't make me warm and fuzzy inside that we haven't seen or heard of anything or anyone.

From the brink of no longer being in existence to a valuation higher than that of Microsoft, Apple has really done a great deal right in the last 10 years. I also love their products and the emotion I and my family get from using them (direct and indirect). I hope they can continue this not only in the short term but in the post Steve Jobs reality that is inevitable.