The CEOs of rival companies, including Samsung Electronics, Amazon, Google and Sony, all mourned the death of Apple’s iconic leader Steve Jobs. Jobs brought Apple to its elevated status, with products such as iPhone, iPod and iPad enjoying comfortable margins in the market.
With Steve Jobs gone, some now have doubts about Apple’s ability to keep its lead. His death raises a lot of questions on how Apple can offer revolutionary products in the same grandeur as when Steve Jobs was around.
Kim Young-chan, an analyst at Shinhan Investment in Seoul said: “As a technology analyst, I am sorry for his death. It was Jobs’ Apple, not Apple’s Jobs.”
For Simon Liu, deputy investment officer of Polaris Group’s fund unit, said: “Apple no longer has someone as creative and ambitious as Jobs that they can rely on.”
Lee Seung-woo, technology analyst at Shinyoung Securities, who thinks Apple’s influence would dwindle without Jobs, said: “Under Jobs, Apple consolidated segmented IT sectors into one big consumer market and claimed so many victims. Without Jobs, Apple’s rivals now have some time to step up and majors such as Google, Samsung, Microsoft and Facebook will try to fill the gap.”
Jan Dawson, chief telecoms analyst at research consultancy Ovum, thinks Apple can survive in the short term, but “the question is whether it can continue to launch iconic and successful products without him (in the longer term). In the longer term, Apple risks becoming a more ordinary company without him.”
The loss of Steve Jobs may open opportunities for other technological companies to challenge Apple’s supremacy; the burden of facing the big challenges ahead now lies on the remaining leaders in Apple.
