If you’ve picked up the magazine today, you’ll see that’s exactly what’s happened this week. We suggested buying shares in Apple, only for its founder and chairman Steve Jobs to pass away just a few hours after the magazine hit the printers.
But the sad death of Mr Jobs makes no difference to the investment case that we outlined, because his visionary leadership has laid a foundation at Apple from which it will continue to build for years to come, even as competitors nip at its heels.
It goes without saying, of course, that it is a great tragedy that a visionary man who has brought genuine joy to millions of Apple users the world over has died so young. I have to admit, I’ve never been one of them – as a long-standing PC user, I struggled to get to grips with my Mac when we were given the designers cast-offs a few years ago. I’ll even admit that it took me a year to work out where the CD-Rom was hidden, a proper Zoolander moment.
But my creative friends swear by them, and it’s hard to deny the beauty of the industrial design in its consumer products. And, Apple fan or not, anyone who has enjoyed the benefits of technology owes something of a debt to Mr Jobs, and his pioneering work to bring computing to the masses. The man is likely to beatified by the technology industry, and deservedly so.
At risk of seeming callous, though, life goes on for Apple, and shareholders will no doubt be wondering where the company goes from here. The last time Apple and Mr Jobs went their separate ways almost bankrupted the company. His return in 1996 sparked a renaissance that has seen it rise to become the most valuable technology brand in the world, and the second most valuable brand full-stop behind Coca Cola.
It is no coincidence. Mr Jobs’ great skill lay not in dreaming up new technologies himself (although he has no less than 338 patents to his name) but in working out how to turn them into products that people want to buy. The graphic user interface that underpinned Apple’s early computing successes was invented not by Apple but by Xerox – but it was Mr Jobs that recognised what this idea could do for computing. Nor was Apple the first company to come out with a laptop or a digital music player or a music download service or a mobile phone or a tablet computer. But Mr Jobs understood, intuitively it seems, how to make these good ideas better, and then how to sell them better, too. Apple’s success under his influence came not from great technology itself, but an innate understanding of more ancient arts of packaging and theatre.
It is hard to imagine many companies that appear, at first glance, to be so utterly dependent on the vision of a single, charismatic leader, or, indeed, that anyone will emerge within Apple to fill Mr Job’s shoes. By all accounts he was something of an autocratic leader, whose presence was felt in almost every important decision the company made. And even though his illness had forced him to take something of a backseat in recent years, investors always found reassurance in the knowledge that he was still there behind the scenes, conducting his orchestra of talented inventors and marketeers.
The day before Mr Job’s death, Apple launched its latest iPhone, the 4S, and many felt the first launch handled by his successor, Tim Cook, lacked the frisson of previous launches that had gadget enthusiasts queuing up to get their hands on the latest gizmo.
We now know that maybe Apple didn’t feel too much like celebrating, but until this morning's sad news the subdued launch was interpreted as a sign that without the Jobs spark Apple will struggle to keep the delivering the same level of innovation that has helped it put clear air between itself and rivals in the chasing technology pack over the last decade. As one US technology writer, Dan Gillmor, put it, despite having some of the best creative minds in the business, all future decisions on the all-important business of product design will be beset with doubt. “Everyone will ask, would Steve have made this particular choice? And no one will know for sure.”
I, for one, think the strength of the legacy Mr Jobs leaves means that Apple will continue to surprise us all. Tim Cook may not have the stage skill of Steve Jobs, but so what? He is well regarded by staff, shareholders and analysts, and after spending five years under the wing of his predecessor probably does have a good idea what particular choice Steve would have made. Let us not forget either that British designer Jonathan Ive, the man responsible for every great piece of hardware the firm has cooked up over the past decade, continues to head up its industrial design unit.
Maybe, heaven forefend, the talents of the impressive team assembled by Mr Jobs may even begin to shine more brightly once out of his shadow. Some have said that Mr Jobs’ single-mindedness could see him push through his strongly-held ideas even if they weren’t always in the best interests of the company. Maybe the team he leaves behind could even bring skills to the role that Mr Jobs could not, not least a more balanced approach that sees Apple engage in more consensual dealings with partners like Facebook or Macromedia, or publishers like ourselves.
That’s important, because Apple undoubtedly faces increasingly stiff competition from the Android posse – software by Google, hardware by a myriad of rivals from Amazon to Samsung. Apple may be a hugely innovative company, but it cannot stand alone forever in an increasingly interconnected world.
Its product roadmap, which includes the iPhone 5, the iPad 3 and a new mobile operating system, iOS 5, will undoubtedly see it continue to break its own sales records in the coming years. But the technology industry does not stand still, and to grow further Apple will need to continue to evolve. Mr Gillmor suggests that as it has grown, Apple has become more and more like the firm it was rebelling against, Microsoft, a transformation that has led to disenfranchisement of some former fans. Maybe loosening the rein of “control freakery” could see it start to win back old friends and find new ones. If it does that, I for one would love, finally, to be one of them.
