As much as we Apple fans hate to admit it, at some point Steve Jobs will step down as the CEO. Analysts, bloggers, and technology writers sometimes like to ponder exactly who would take over as CEO if Jobs were to leave Apple. The pondering hit a high following the WWDC Keynote when anumberofpublicationsposted on the frail look of Steve while he was on stage during the Keynote. Coming today, Fortune looks to answer those questions about Steve’s successor.
Fortune has posted 11 potential successors for the post Jobs era at Apple. Among the potential Apple executives up for the task according to Fortune:
Tim Cook - COO
Phil Schiller - SVP, Worldwide Product Marketing
Scott Forstall - SVP, iPhone Software
Jonathan Ive - SVP, Industrial Design
Peter Oppenheimer - CFO
My money is on Tim Cook. He’s as involved with the day to day running of Apple as anyone in the company. Tim was also the interim CEO when Steve Jobs had his pancreatic cancer surgery in 2004. Tim’s also has a passion for cycling, which helps him in my book! Who do you think is the next CEO of Apple?
In a move that will have conspiracy theorist busy for days, Apple has acquired a small microprocessor company named PA Semi according to Forbes. Details of the purchase were not announced, but sources have said the deal was worth $278 million cash. As usual, Apple has said little about the deal.
PA Semi was founded in 2003 by Dan Dobberpuhl, who was the lead designer for the Alpha and StrongARM microprocessors developed by Digital Equipment in the 1990s. What’s truly interesting about this deal is that PA Semi develops processors based on the Power Architecture. This is the same architecture that previously powered Apple computers prior to the transition to Intel processors in 2006.
It’s highly unlikely that Apple would transition any existing Mac back to the Power Architecture. So what exactly would Apple need a Power based processor for? A new mobile device? More powerful iPods? A new processor for the iPhone? Obviously only Apple knows exactly why they purchased PA Semi. But what is fairly clear is that they are developing some type of device that will contain a Power based processor. Whether or not a new device is being born or an existing one changed, the Power architecture is alive again at Apple.
It was 32 years ago today that our favorite computer company (now a consumer electronics company) was founded. Yes, Apple was founded April 1st, 1976. It wasn’t until January 3rd, 1977 that Apple was incorporated however.
From the Apple I, Apple II, Apple IIe, to the Macintosh, iPod, Apple TV, and iPhone, Apple has come a long way in those 32 years. Here’s to another 32 and beyond! If you want to read up on the history of your favorite consumer electronics company, Wikipedia of course has a great article on the company.
Each year Fortune magazine compiles a list of the top 20 most admired companies in the US. This year, your favorite consumer electronics company (not just computers anymore) topped the list. Yes, Apple, Inc was named the most admired company in the US.
“To create the top 20, Fortune and its survey partners at Hay Group asked the experts — in this case, more than 3,700 people from dozens of industries — to select the 10 companies they admire most.” Apple ranked number one in what you would expect, innovation and quality of its product.
In conjunction with the “Most Admired Companies” theme, Fortune has a number of other Apple related articles posted.
The Macworld Keynote is in the books. Steve Jobs announced some pretty good stuff, some of which will cause my credit card to get some action in the coming weeks. Want to know what went down at the Keynote but don’t care to read a liveblog post or 10 different posts? I’ve created a cheat sheet of sorts for the 2008 Macworld Keynote. Here’s the lowdown:
OS X
-5 million copies of Leopard have been delivered. This is likely a combination of new Mac sales and Leopard boxed copies (no definitive word given).
Time Capsule
-Time Capsule is a companion product for Leopard’s Time Machine. Time Capsule is a combination Airport Extreme Base Station with a server grade hard drive. It’s a “backup appliance”.
-500GB and 1TB storage for $299 and $499 respectively.
-Backup multiple Macs to the same Time Capsule.
-No word on if this feature will be available for USB drives connected to the current Airport Extreme Base Stations.
iPhone
-4 million iPhone sold to date.
-It’s first quarter shipping it garnered 19% of the smart phone market share.
-1.1.3 iPhone software upgrade released: SMS to multiple people, current position locator in maps, customizable home screen, and more.
iPod Touch
-Mail, maps, stocks, notes, and weather coming to the Touch.
-The cost of those applications is $20 for current Touch owners and will be built in to new ones.
With the 2008 Macworld JobsNote just a few days away, speculation is nearly at an all time high. Every Apple and gadget related blog has already posted their Macworld predictions and I’m about to toss mine out too. Could this years Keynote bring something bigger than the 2007 Keynote when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world? I think it’s going to be pretty hard to top the iPhone, but I’m expecting great things from Apple none the less. Here are my predictions (and the percentage chance that it will happen) for the 2008 Macworld Keynote, which will be held Tuesday, January 15th live in San Francisco. Head on over to this post on Engadget for live coverage of the Keynote starting at 9:00AM Pacific.
Software
In light of the recent news that iTunes will soon bring movie rentals, I think it’s safe to say we’re going to see a new version of iTunes out (and likely Quicktime as these are often updated together). With the exception of Aperture, all other Apple software has received some kind of update recently. Will there be a new version of Aperture released at Macworld? I don’t think we’ll see a new version of Aperture at Macworld. Macworld is predominately a consumer focused event and Aperture is a professional level application. Maybe we’ll see a new Aperture at WWDC in June. Chances we see a new iTunes/Quicktime: 100%. Chances we’ll see a new Aperture: 15%.
iPods
Not much to speculate on here. The entire line was recently updated (except for the color for the Shuffle) so it’s pretty unlikely you’ll see anything new here. Chances we’ll see a new iPod: 0%.
Since Macworld is next week, I thought it would be a good time to share this blooper reel of keynote speeches gone wrong. Watch the nearly five minute long video featuring Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, and others as hilarity ensues when they run into problems with their speech or technical demonstration. This video is the perfect tune-up for Macworld next week. Enjoy!
Update: I seem to always have problems embedding Youtube videos here. I’m really hoping this last edit will fix the layout.
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