Why Apple will not survive without Steve Jobs

No-one as a matter of fact needs to be reminded of the outcome of that lifesaving decision. iMac, iTunes, iPod, the move to Intel processors, iPhone, MacBook Air, iPad - all massive successes contributing to Apple being one of the - otherwise THE - richest company in the world.

Those of us in the media, who have dealt with Apple on a corporate level in different countries around the world, know how the company operates.

Apple is the corporate equivalent of a one-world government pursuant to this agreement the obsessive control of a tyrannical dictator. Unlike any other innovation company in the world, there is no autonomy at a local level anywhere outside of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California.

The power hierarchy at Apple is evidently defined and

The power hierarchy at Apple is evidently defined and, until recently, there has never been any doubt that the person in charge was none other than Steve Jobs.

And this brings us back to why Apple, a company with only a few products that plays in a largely select niche consumer market place, has been such a phenomenal success.

The letter Steve Jobs' dream

Apple is to the letter Steve Jobs' dream. Unlike his rivals, he does not care or try to guess what products the market would like to have. All Steve Jobs cares about is what products Steve Jobs would like to have.

Steve Jobs hated the type of personal computers that IBM was producing. What he wanted was a Macintosh. He hated the type of mobile phones that we were being forced to used. What he wanted was an iPhone. Steve Jobs hated netbooks. What he wanted was an iPad. Steve Jobs hated the way he had to buy the music he loved. What he wanted was a store where he could download it to a device that he could put in his short pocket or clip to his running shorts.

Yes, occasionally Jobs has some failures - Apple TV has not specifically been a rip snorting boom product. However most of the time Jobs has hit the nail on the head.

Self-centred

Some may think Steve Jobs is a self-centred, selfish ass for telling his development teams to bring products to the market that he personally would like to have. Nevertheless, others recognise that what Steve Jobs has done with Apple is the mark of true genius.

However, unless another genius of the calibre of Steve Jobs steps in - and let's face it they don't happen too often - at the time Apple will in the long run revert to trying to invent new products that it thinks the market might want. If that happens, then and there Apple will once again begin a slow and painful slide, because the true differentiator between Apple and its rivals is none other than Steve Jobs.

If you are wondering why you need to have a mobile device policy inside your small to medium sized business, the simple answer is that everything has "gone mobile". Software applications have been migrating to mobile versions of themselves with in the extreme predictable levels of regularity, so employees are using their mobile devices as so then as their desktop computers.