The death of visionary Steve Jobs has left huge shoes to fill at Apple, with agile competitors mounting a continuous assault on the company’s hit iPhones, iPads and other groundbreaking products.
Analysts said that for the short term, new chief executive Tim Cook has inherited a strong company with a powerful product line and has the skills to keep it going – though there remain questions over his ability to match Mr Jobs’s acumen at picking winners in the consumer electronics market.
The company’s share price fell, and then rebounded, after the death of Mr Jobs on Wednesday.
It was up 1.1 per cent to $382.13 in midday trade yesterday, as tech industry experts renewed votes of confidence in the company’s ability to beat back challengers.
“We believe Tim Cook is well-qualified for his new role as CEO and has at his disposal a deep and talented executive team in the areas of supply chain management, hardware/software design and product marketing,” said Canaccord analyst Michael Walkley.
The list of market-stunning products tied to Mr Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976, is long: Mac computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads, and the operating systems behind them that while not as widely used as rival Microsoft’s, are revered as high-performance devices worth the premium prices usually charged.
Independent Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle called Mr Jobs “the ultimate product tester.”Mr Jobs garnered regular standing ovations at conferences where he introduced them, including the latest version of the iPad in March this year and the iCloud cloud computing service in June.Thirteen-year Apple veteran Mr Cook, by comparison, underwhelmed in his launch of a new iPhone onTuesday: many fans believed there would be an all-new fifth generation version, but it turned out to be a modified iPhone 4, dubbed the 4s, and the company’s shares were sold off.
But analysts said the smartphone was a strong improvement and should fly off the shelves, and give Mr Cook a solid grade.
Overall for Apple, new capabilities in the operating system and the iCloud “will generate strong sales of iPhone 4S ,” he said.“I don’t think Apple’s lost their mojo at all,” Gartner’s Baker told AFP after the iPhone 4s launch.
“All of this brouhaha will blow over, probably about the time they see people are buying a gazillion of the iPhones,” Mr Baker continued.
“In our view, iCloud has just gotten started,” said tech analyst Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee.