Steve 2.0

Steve Jobs resigned today as Apple CEO,for a new position as chairman. He said that:

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”

Stock markets have fallen, hair has been rent, and TechWorld is in mourning as if he had already died. He is ill, but news of his death is somewhat exagerrated. And senior guys move on,it happens.So why the sturmand drang?

I think MG Siegler at TechCrunch is right when he says:

The root of this lies in the emotional ties that people have with Apple products. And that fact that we’re shifting towards a world where having contact with at least one Apple product on a daily basis is the norm. It may be an iPod, it may be a Mac, it may be an iPhone, it may be an iPad. It may even be an Apple TV.

And that was Steve Jobs' genius. Computer OS User Experience was crap until the Mac. Internet Mobile experience was crap until the iPhone. Tablets were crap until the iPad (though let us not forget that There Comes A Time in technology - the Newton was hardly a soaraway success)

That is what Apple needs to continue - that constant, fanatical, putting the customer first. And that is all that anyone else needs to to do match Apple. The time has never been better to take them on.

Doing it, of course, in large risk-averse cover-my-arse corporate heirarchies is another matter altogether. Just ask Nokia. And that is why the only position you can make the change from, that you can knock all the heads together from, is the top job.