THE END OF AN ERA: STEVE JOBS RESIGNS AS APPLE CEO - Sponsored Whitepaper

Author: Ezra Gottheil, Senior Analyst Published: 08.24.11

Apple is on rails. Its products are locked into leadership positions in three critical categories, each at different stages of product lifecycles. Smartphones are a huge business with plenty of running room. Tablets have just lifted off. The company Steve Jobs built knows what to do and how to do it. The succession is indisputable. The only problems are ones that everyone knows how to solve, and everyone knows their role in solving them.

In the near term, despite all his other contributions, Apple will miss Jobs most when it stages one of its great performances; the show has lost its star. Apple will have to pay what other companies pay for publicity.

There are undoubtedly new products in the pipeline. Apple aims for the far horizon. Those efforts are going to follow their determined trajectory. There will be mistakes, and people will blame them on Jobs' absence, but Jobs makes mistakes, too.