Computer: Ten Years Without Steve Jobs: How Apple Has Changed

Apple without Steve Jobs was actually inconceivable. But ten years ago the inevitable day came: On October 5, 2011, the charismatic Apple co-founder lost his long battle against cancer. Jobs was only 56 years old.

Six weeks earlier, on August 24, 2011, the Apple boss had appointed his confidante Tim Cook as the new group leader. This decision surprised many observers. Cook had made a name for himself as a logistics and production expert. But he did not reveal the charisma with which Jobs had regularly cast a spell over the masses.

Larry Ellison, who was a close friend of the Apple co-founder for many years, was one of the skeptics at the time. The head of the software giant Oracle believed that Apple would be doomed without Steve Jobs. In a TV interview, he drew a parallel to 1985, when the Apple board of directors pushed Steve Jobs out of the company. Over the next twelve years, Apple was so run down that in 1997 the company was on the verge of bankruptcy and Jobs was brought back as a savior. “We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now we’re going to see Apple without Steve Jobs, “said Ellison. “Steve Jobs is irreplaceable.”

Then everything turned out differently

But after Jobs’s death things turned out differently than Ellison had feared. Apple sells more devices and services than ever before. In August 2018, the iPhone manufacturer went down in financial history as the first US company to achieve a trillion dollar valuation on the stock exchange. Just two years later it was two trillion. In addition to the stock market boom, according to experts, the high level of customer loyalty in particular contributed to the rise. “When a new user starts using an Apple smartphone, they usually stick with an Apple smartphone,” explains Jeriel Ong, a Deutsche Bank equity analyst.

And the rally isn’t over yet. Since October 2011, the share price has risen from around $ 13 to an all-time high of just under $ 150. Cook also regularly pampers shareholders with dividends, which Jobs has always refused.

Cook managed to constantly win over new groups of buyers with the iPhone. He also expanded the range of additional devices such as the Apple Watch computer clock or the AirPods earphones and placed subscription services such as iCloud and Apple TV + on the market. He also managed to charge higher prices for his products, so that a large part of the industry’s profits now go to Apple.

Cook is committed to environmental protection

Tim Cook is still not a great presenter on stage. Nevertheless, it has now set its own accents that clearly set it apart from its predecessor. One example of this is the environment. Steve Jobs fought heated arguments with representatives of Greenpeace in 2008 when environmentalists asked him to stop using brominated flame retardants in Apple products. Under certain circumstances, these are poisonous, difficult to break down in the environment and accumulate in living beings.

Under the direction of Cook, Apple not only refrained from using the controversial flame retardants, but also from all other environmental toxins in production. In addition, he converted the group completely to renewable energy. This ambitious project is now to be expanded to include the entire supply chain.

This change was also registered by Greenpeace. “Since Tim Cook took over the management of Apple, he has made environmental protection an important part of the company’s identity,” said the organization in 2017 when it published a report on environmental standards at electronics manufacturers. Apple only had to admit defeat to the smartphone vendor Fairphone in the “Greener Electronics” ranking because the Dutch devices are easier to repair.

Annoyance for Facebook

In addition to the environmental issue, Apple under Cook is also trying to set itself apart from the competition in the area of ​​data protection. For example, Apple changed its iPhone software last April in such a way that providers like Facebook now have to ask users for permission if they want to track their activities across different apps and websites. Jobs had already announced this data protection principle in 2010 at the “D8” conference, but left the implementation to his successor.

When it comes to protecting privacy, Cook was able to make a name for itself in front of a large public as early as 2016. At that time, the FBI asked Apple to manipulate the iPhone operating system iOS in such a way that law enforcement officers could search the bomber’s locked iPhone after a terrorist attack in San Bernardino. Cook rejected this request because the safety functions of the products would not be undermined.

Cook also suffered setbacks on this issue. For example, Apple put plans on hold to introduce a scan function on the iPhone to prevent child abuse images from being uploaded to the cloud. Previously, there had been an outcry that Apple had taken the wrong path in the legitimate fight against child pornography.

Waiting for the next revolution

The biggest drawback of the Cook era, however, is that the Jobs successor has not yet been able to come up with a revolutionary new product. His predecessor regularly conjured up a “one more thing” that turned entire industries upside down: in 1999 the iMac, in 2001 the iPod and iTunes music service, in 2007 the revolutionary iPhone and in 2010 the iPad. Under Cook there are rumors about revolutionary new products such as an Apple car or glasses for augmented reality applications, but so far Apple fans have been waiting in vain for them.

Cook critics point to a quote from Steve Jobs that is written in big letters on the wall in Apple’s old company headquarters: “If you do something and it turns out to be pretty good, then you should be doing something wonderful and don’t dwell on it too long. Just figure out what’s next. ”