Apple Names New Chairman 114
angry tapir writes "Arthur Levinson, former CEO of biotech company Genentech, is taking on the chairmanship of Apple's board, filling the role that Apple founder Steve Jobs vacated when he died last month."
El Reg notes that Disney CEO/President Robert Iger was also appointed to the board, and that this marks the first time since the return of Steve Jobs to Apple that the CEO and board chairman were different people.
Will the reality distortion field last? (Score:5, Insightful)
These are pretty conventional corporate appointments, which leads me to wonder how much longer the Steve Job's aura will last. I think they would have been better off appointing a very charismatic figurehead as CEO (as the *public* face), and then letting the business folks quietly run the show behind the scenes. It's hard to believe that fans will one day cry like their daddy died when Tim Cook or one of these corporate insiders leaves. And Apple has always relied on a certain degree of devotion from their fans (I'll resist the cult comparison) and an image of hipness.
In comes all the scumbags (Score:3, Insightful)
Maximizing profits to boost short term share price will be the #1 focus of the company going forward.
Re:Will the reality distortion field last? (Score:5, Insightful)
These are pretty conventional corporate appointments, which leads me to wonder how much longer the Steve Job's aura will last. I think they would have been better off appointing a very charismatic figurehead as CEO (as the *public* face), and then letting the business folks quietly run the show behind the scenes. It's hard to believe that fans will one day cry like their daddy died when Tim Cook or one of these corporate insiders leaves. And Apple has always relied on a certain degree of devotion from their fans (I'll resist the cult comparison) and an image of hipness.
The vast majority of iPod/iPhone/iPad owners have never met Steve Jobs; they've never watched an Apple video stream of a Steve Jobs keynote. They may have seen him on the cover of Time once, but they never read the article, because that's boring business-stock-market-computer-geek stuff. They haven't even read the tell-all biography that every tech news site has been posting exposes on, because, well, nobody reads books anymore.
The Steve Jobs posse came out in force on the Internet when Steve Jobs died, but they're a tiny, tiny majority of Apple buyers in real life. Apple has been so successful because it appealed to regular people. The Apple fanboys were just the highly visible cheering section; the stands were filled with regular people.
Re:Will the reality distortion field last? (Score:2, Insightful)
The fanboys are who buy the inital offering and sell the concept to their friends.
Could be a good fit (Score:5, Insightful)
Like Apple, Disney is nearly obsesive about protecting it's IP; while ripping off everybody else's IP.
Re:Will the reality distortion field last? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Will the reality distortion field last? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Will the reality distortion field last? (Score:3, Insightful)
Any group of fans who refer to 'the others' as 'the haters' is a fucking cult.