Analysts Fear Apple Will Tumble Without Steve Jobs

[NathanF1]

A new analysis from marketing intelligence firm IHS iSuppli says that “no matter how successfully Jobs seeded Apple with his genius, his spark may prove irreplaceable over the long term.”

Not that IHS has produced a particularly original theory, but their extensive report does make an informative read.
...
Analyst says:
“While there are clearly very smart people at Apple, I question whether anyone can envision and realize social and behavioral change the way that Jobs did. Without Jobs at the helm, Apple’s massive margins have got to wane at some point.”

Link - Softpedia

IHS Report

 

[MrXidus]

With today's huge amount of Apple sheep I somewhat doubt this. But tomorrow can always change.

It will be interesting to see how Apple does with Jobs gone.

 

[K__M]

I agree, i dough Apple will fall... it is a very huge competitor against many other major company's. Like.. Microsoft, Google, HP.. etc.. Just the iPhone alone is one of the most popular phones, iPad is also very popular, and we can not forget the Mac computers!

There will always be someone to take Jobs place. There are many people in the world that have great ideas that are unique and would be able to make them happen.

Now.. of course the ideas would be different, BUT, that could be a good thing! No one lives forever.. it is sad to see someone go of course.. but i believe the company will be just fine.. well.. for now

 

[jamescv7]

Hopefully even Steve Job is gone, they may still continue to have exciting gadgets that people will still be interest.

 

[Jack]

I doubt Apple will be able to maintain their growth rate on the long term not necessarily because the products will be worst but because everyone thinks that Apple = Innovation = Steve Jobs , so the new products will have a minus right from the start.
I'm sure that if the 4GS would've been release by Jobs in the traditional way , it would've have a lot more success.

 

[NathanF1]

One thing that will probably have to change @ Apple is the outrageous prices and markups they've been enjoying for so long [as the analyst in the article says "Without Jobs at the helm, Apple’s massive margins have got to wane at some point."]...

I too use Apple products, but if any other company released a phone with malfunctioning antenna, there would have been a lot of pressure for product recalls, etc., when Apple does it - they can start charging $79.95 for an inch-long brightly colored tape to fix the issue

It was, and I suppose still is a great trick - the squeaky clean, creative and non-conformist anti-corporate image of the company that managed to turn Apple into one of the biggest corporate entities...