The Weekly Debate 15/09: Is Apple doomed without Steve Jobs?

Jobs isn't dead, thankfully, but it's no secret that he's the driving force behind Apple. With him gone, the company went through major troubles. With him back, it's been on the up faster and faster each year.

But no successor is in place and, although it's unlikely for the next half decade at least, Jobs will one day have to step down.

Like Bill Gates, I foresee however, he'll never truly leave until sweet Mother Earth pulls him into the land of the worms and corpses.

At such a time, will Apple tank? Will the iPod go the way of the Dodo? Will Apple be able to hold onto the success Jobs helped forge?

I pass the conversational baton over to you for this week.

I honestly don't know, but one thing for sure is that it will most likely become a completely different entity.

From my own personal opinions of Apple's current form, I think it would change for the better. The high-tech environment Apple existed in during Jobs' absence is completely different to present times, and also they have Jobs' design legacy to fall back on.

My other personal opinion is that with or without Jobs, the way Apple operates is doomed to fail eventually anyway. Despite having some open source code in OS X, their business is one of the most closed tech businesses out there. Maintaining that position is financially costly, and they are not without competition on all fronts.

It depends on who takes-over for Apple when Steve Jobs leaves. If they employ someone with similar skills to Jobs then Apple may live on for a ouple of more years, but if they just employ some randomer (Which I doubt they will) then Apple will just probably fade away.

Apple need someone who's innovative and can come up with some good ideas. Maybe Jobs could sort-out who replaces him when he leaves? If Jobs himself picks then, well, what could go wrong?

I don't think so it's not like as soon as jobs leave all the products and Ideas floating around will just fade away instantly. And I doubt Jobs does alot of the work now, so long as they can get a guy with abit of charisma and good public speaking skills they should be fine.

I think it will go the way it did last time without him. A company being run by a board who had no direction and didn't know what to do with the company.

No.

Is Microsoft doomed without Bill gates?

Is Microsoft doomed without Bill?

Is Microsoft doomed

Microsoft Doomed

Doomed

Yes ^

Right now I don't think that Microsoft is particularly doomed. They still dominate with their Operating Systems (XP/Vista) and Office software (Some people don't even know alternatives to Mirosoft Office, which I find rather worrying).

Macs are expensive in comparison to a Windows PC. You could use Linux but then, not everybody knows about it yet, and I think that less tech-savvy users wouldn't like it as much.

Everyone who I know who uses Vista has downgraded (upgraded) to XP or (definitely upgraded) linux. Office wise, most people I know use OOo or iWork.

TBH I still don't think there are any alternatives to Office in the work place. I know I am an advocate of free, open source software and OOo is perfectly good for home use, but in the work place with large, complicated spreadsheets etc, MS Office still wins.

Oh Matthew,

I have downloaded PC-BSD 7 beta and am going to install it onto my Open Source box tonight, is it easy to duel boot with Linux using grub?