What is Apple Without Steve Jobs?

necro81 writes "David Pauly at Bloomberg has written a piece that asks 'Does Apple Inc. Have a Future Without Steve Jobs?' He writes in the context of Jobs' latest success in launching the iPhone, set against the backdrop of stock backdating troubles. In Pauly's worst-case-scenario, the SEC prosecutes Apple, and the board is forced to oust Jobs.Even without resorting to such scenarios, it's an interesting question to ask the fanboys and detractors out there: could Apple succeed and continue to innovative without Jobs at the helm?"

Re:Ummm,

[Tackhead]

> Considering that the couple of folks that tried to clone the AppleII way back when were mercilessly hunted down and killed, (legalistically speaking), by Apple, and the short time Apple tried to license out their OS to clone makers was such a miserable failure due to their overly restrictive terms and high fees, I think my opinion is an honest one, not a troll.
>
> Contrast to IBM and M$, who let the IBM PC clones freak flags fly, welcoming any and all third party developers and apps.

It was a weird time in the industry. Everyone was trying to figure out whether or not to go with open or closed architectures, and changing their minds about it every couple of years.

Compared to the Mac, the Apple ][ was an exceptionally open platform. It not only had slots, when you bought an Apple ][, you got the schematics for the hardware, and you got a commented disassembly of the ROM in your documentation. Whereas the Mac needed a special Programmer's Key [wikipedia.org] just to reset the machine.

And as for IBM, the same IBM that let the clones out of the closet... was the same IBM that came up with the PS/2 and MCA (Micro Channel Architecture [wikipedia.org]). Sure the second generation of IBM machines had slots and ran DOS (whether it was PC-DOS or MS-DOS :-), but what good were the machine's slots if you had to sign a licensing agreement just to build hardware for 'em?

Re:Just like...

[mgabrys_sf]

Youd' recall wrong. The British govt said bullshit that for years to save-face after running DMC into the ground when they panicked themselves out of the market, but in spite of nearly TWO FUCKING DECADES of lawsuits, he was cleared.

Still love those Brits - they never say surrender eh-wot?

iPhone available at Amazon in Germany

[freedumb2000]

This is a tad OT but i thought I'd mention that for some reason the iPhone is available for pre-order at Amazon in Germany. It's 999 for the 8Gb model and already tops Amazon's top 10 sellers list. http://www.amazon.de/gp/bestsellers/ce-de/ref=pd_t s_c_th_head/028-5061788-4808524 [amazon.de]

Re:Ummm,

[dgatwood]

Uh... the programmer's key was not a key like you insert into a lock. It was a key like a key on your keyboard. It was a button that stuck out the side. And there were two of them: one to reset, one to drop into the debugger. Those two buttons persisted on all Mac hardware until well into the reign of the PowerMac G4.

Perhaps you're thinking of the custom case cracking tool that the early classic-style Macs required to get inside the case....