[fondue]

Interesting subtext beneath the article - with Jobs gone once again Apple is going to slow down and eventually die. I'm sure I'm not the only one that read that in the article; there will definately be a lot of, "Can Apple continue to innovate now that Jobs is gone?" articles in the coming year.

Unless he passed on to someone his vision for what he sees as the future of the iPhone or communications in general, I think Apple will begin to flounder again and eventually fade off into history.

[fizx]

I think apple has the potential to be Disney, which reached its peak well after Walt's death. The key is to have everyone be in awe of the founder's legacy. Apple's failures in the 90's were because they went the opposite direction of asking "What would Steve do?" It seems likely that for the next 50 years, everyone at Apple will ask this question.

[leoc]

I think it means to be explicit about that. The thing is, though, the facts in the article suggest a different explanation. Likely the declining relevance of instant film cameras made Polaroid's own decline more or less inevitable. And it seems even more likely that if there was some change of direction that would have returned Polaroid to glory, then Land - the man who stubbornly pursued Polavision beyond the point of reason - didn't know it and wasn't the man to discover it.

And to be honest, I think that something similar is more likely what will happen to Apple. Technological changes are coming that will make the Jobs/Apple approach less lucrative than it has been, and I think they'll probably arrive before Apple really starts to drift from that approach and those standards. If and when that does happen, people will definitely talk about how Jobs maybe could have turned things round, but I wouldn't have bet on it. Like Land, I think Jobs had one big idea and one strategy when it came to computers and consumer electronics, and all his successes in those areas came largely from his skill at executing that one plan. And like Land, I don't think he could have simply pulled out a new approach - and really, a new set of values and talents - in response to a change in circumstances.