Why We Need Steve Jobs
Love him or hate him, Apple needs its CEO back. Now.
I just spent an hour waiting in a line at an Apple store to buy a product I do not need. It’s the new top-of-the-line iPhone
3GS, and it costs $299, and I waited in line for it even though I already have last year’s iPhone 3G model, not to mention a
NEWSWEEK-issued BlackBerry, a low-end Nokia “feature phone,” and a new Palm Pre, albeit a loaner unit. Why did I do this?
Well, the new iPhone has a faster processor than its predecessor,air yeezy
and a better camera, and it shoots video. It also has more memory, so I can carry around more songs or movies. But really, I
did it because I trust that whatever Apple puts out will be worth the money. I did it because I always want to have the
latest and greatest from Apple. You see, Apple and its loyal customers (like me) have made a deal: it’ll keep improving its
products at a fantastic pace, and killing off its own products. In return, we’ll keep buying whatever it makes.
In the midst of all this, some people are wondering whether Apple might be better off if Steve Jobs did not return to work
from his sick leave. Jobs, Apple’s visionary CEO, has been on medical leave for six months and has received a liver
transplant. He’s now starting to come back to work, but there air yeezy
shoesare some folks who seem to wish he’d just stay away. That was kind of the gist of the story in this morning’s Wall
Street Journal, which praised Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook for doing such a bang-up job while the Dear Leader was
away. One Wall Street analyst said the loss of Cook would be more upsetting to him than the loss of Jobs. During his absence
Apple’s stock has soared 60 percent, and the company sold 1 million units of the iPhone 3GS during the product’s debut
weekend.
So who needs Steve Jobs? Especially since he’s known for being, well, difficult. He’s created a weird corporate culture of
secrecy about his health and everything else at Apple, as The New York Times pointed out this morning.
Times columnist Joe Nocera goes further and says that if Jobs and his directors won’t come clean about his health problems,
they’re guilty of “dereliction of duty” and should be forced to resign.
OK. Deep breath. Let’s admit that Jobs is a royal pain in the neck. Most of us probably wouldn’t want to work for him, or
live next door to him, or have to negotiate deals with him. nike yeezyHe’s
spoiled, and arrogant, and he has a terrible temper. But he’s also brilliant. Those lines at the Apple store today? Tim Cook
didn’t create those. Neither did Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing chief, or Ron Johnson, the retail boss who runs the stores,
or even Jon Ive, Apple’s design guru. No, Steve Jobs is the one who gets those people to line up. He’s the one with the
vision. He’s the one who inspires the fanboys.
Cook is a great manager, a whiz when it comes to managing supply chains and keeping the trains running on time. He is vital
to Apple. Jobs cannot do what he does. But neither can Cook do what Jobs does. The fact is, Apple needs both of them. Forgive
me for the analogy I am about tonike yeezy make—but if you’ve seen the
latest Star Trekmovie, then you might understand how Cook and Jobs work together. Cook is Spock: low-key, cerebral,
methodical. He’s the Apollonian counterpart to Kirk, the Dionysian hothead. Kirk is impulsive—but nobody would deny that he,
not Spock, should be captain of the ship.
So it is with Steve Jobs and Apple, only more so. Apple is Steve; Steve is Apple. No CEO is as important to his company as
Jobs is to Apple. I would go farther and argue that not only air yeezydoes
Apple need Steve Jobs—the world needs him. In an age when the pace of technology innovation keeps accelerating so much that
we often feel overwhelmed, we need someone who can package new technology, make it accessible to us, and deliver it to us in
a way that makes it simple, useful, and reliable. How many things in your life work as well as your Macintosh, or your iPod,
or your iPhone? (Allowing for the fact that AT&T’s cell network stinks.)
So, yes, today I waited an hour in line for my new phone. As soon as I got it, right there in the store I typed in my account
information for MobileMe, Apple’s online service, and air yeezy shoeswatched
as all of my e-mail, contacts, calendar information, and bookmarks zipped through the air and filled up my phone. Like magic.
In seconds. Without a hiccup.
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