Larry Ellison Believes Apple Is Doomed

Nerval's Lobster writes "Oracle CEO Larry Ellison thinks that Apple will collapse without Steve Jobs at the helm. In a televised interview with CBS News, scheduled to air August 13, Ellison called the deceased Jobs 'brilliant' and compared him to iconic creators such as Thomas Edison and Pablo Picasso. When asked about Apple's future now that Jobs is dead, Ellison didn't hold back: 'We already know, we saw — we conducted the experiment, it's been done.' Raising his hand above his head, presumably to indicate the rise of Apple's fortunes during Jobs' initial reign, Ellison said: 'We saw Apple with Steve Jobs.' Then he lowered his hand: "We saw Apple without Steve Jobs." In other words, the period following Jobs' ouster, when the company's revenues declined and it launched whole portfolios of consumer products that failed. 'We saw Apple with Steve Jobs,' Ellison continued, raising his hand above his head again — this time, to suggest that incandescent period following Jobs' return to the company, when it released the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and a variety of bestselling PCs. 'And now, we're going to see Apple without Steve Jobs,' he finished, and his hand fell."

CEO badmouths competitor & tries to demoralize

[iggymanz]

later, a bear eats fish and takes a dump in the woods. Story at 10

CEOs are overrated

[Anonymous Coward]

When Jobs was ousted they went from a $1 billion a year revenue company to a $10 billion a year company a few years later. It was Sculley's ouster that doomed Apple ;)

Not a compelling argument

[kruach aum]

it sounds kind of hand wave-y to me.

"...he finished, and his hand fell."

[skaralic]

At Tanagra.
Wow, that is as dramatic of a story summary as I have ever seen on Slashdot. Made me tingle all over...

Re:CEO badmouths competitor & tries to demoral

[cod3r_]

Apple hates java maybe?

Re:CEO badmouths competitor & tries to demoral

[93 Escort Wagon]

Apple hates java maybe?

Apple can get in line behind the rest of us.

Re:CEO badmouths competitor & tries to demoral

[jaymz666]

Oracle hates java...

Re:CEO badmouths competitor & tries to demoral

[Anonymous Coward]

If only a bear would eat Ellison, but unfortunately bears have too good a taste to eat sacks of shit.

Re:CEOs are overrated

[TWiTfan]

Hush, you fool! The hipsters might hear you!

Re:He's right - Android is eating iOS's lunch

[lactose99]

Sync directly with the bloatware and usability mess that is iTunes?

(note that some consider this a significant benefit)

Re:CEO badmouths competitor & tries to demoral

[mrclisdue]

Apple stands behind no one. It would cast a shadow on the shiny.

Now I have TMBG stuck in my head

[runeghost]

Oracle man, Oracle man

Oracle man hates Java man
They have a fight, Oracle wins
Oracle man

Ellison & Jobs

[jonyen]

Don't know why people are bashing on Larry Ellison so much. Larry Ellison & Steve Jobs were close friends (Steve was even the photographer at Larry Ellison's wedding). So of course Ellison knows what he's talking about when he says that Apple is doomed without Steve Jobs.

Re:Oracle is not a competitor.

[sunsurfandsand]

I can't think of any Oracle product that competes with Apple.

Oracle 12 and MySQL 5 compete with Apple's Filemaker.

Re:He's right - Android is eating iOS's lunch

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Here's a story published this week about how Android is growing three times faster than iOS if you prefer statistics instead:

No, no thanks, this is Slashdot; personal anecdotes (or even better, unfounded opinions) are preferred over "facts", which are subject to change.

We Can Learn From This

[SnappyTech]

Larry's comment parallels those that rant that Microsoft is doomed because Apple will eat its lunch. Or those that laugh at Apple and Microsoft saying they are both doomed because cheap Android devices will be their end. Those are extreme comments. Apple, Google, and Microsoft will both continue making record profits that will just increase. For a company, profit is the only true measure of success. They're all adapting. I think the only true change that has come about is that now coders like myself have to be knowledgeable of cross-platform methods so they can hit all the markets, both present and future. Peace out.

Re:He's right - Android is eating iOS's lunch

[bryanbrunton]

You have a folder named Music, you have subfolders named A, B, C, D, ...

How exactly does that not scale?

I have many, many gigabytes of songs.

Re:He's right - Android is eating iOS's lunch

[Dogtanian]

I have 24 k items, mostly lossless audio

You have "24 k" items? I guess you could say that your music collection was...

(puts on sunglasses)

...solid gold.

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! [youtube.com]

Re:Now I have TMBG stuck in my head

[Immerial]

Is he a platform? Is he an app?
When there's a 0-day, does he get patched?
Or does the DB get hacked instead?
Nobody knows, Oracle Man.