The Issue with Steve Jobs

Many people think of Apple founder and also Chief Executive Officer Steve not as a human, but as a demigod. They seen him as an immortal being who has extraordinary powers that could crate really magical electronic products like the well-revered iPhone and iPod. This is, of course, one chief executive officer who is able to inject a sense of adoration and loyalty over his fanatics. These are also the same people who never think twice of actually camping out all night stuck in the freezing cold just so they could attend even one of his fames speeches. There is no other chief executive officer who is very much connected to his company and his company’s products like Jobs. In fact, one Wall Street analyst even went as far as to mention that Apple is Steve Jobs, and vice versa.

As Human as You and Me

Of course, Jobs is indeed no divine being or demigod as he is very much human like the rest of us. This was made all the more evident the previous June when he had appeared at one Apple conference, looking very much gaunt and frail. This had causes a lot of Apple fans to worry that he might be suffering from a relapse of the pancreatic cancer which ailed him four years ago.

Steve Jobs: A Brief History in Time

Jobs had cofounded the Apple group during the year 1976 and was promptly kicked out in 1985. In 1997 he made his dramatic return and rescue since the company was dangerously close to corporate extinction and ever since that time he had been able to show the world how powerful he is in orchestrating one of the greatest corporate turnaround strategies in history. He was able to make Apple as the hottest brand to look at in the arena of consumer electronics. By the end of 1997, the stocks of Apple had been trading for a round three dollars per share. Today, these shares are valued at ninety six dollars each, and even shot at an all-time high of two hundred and two dollars during the earlier part of 2008. The weak economy had probably taken the wind right out of the sails of Apple, also because the company is able to sell to consumers and not just corporate customers. Additionally, it may also be because that the products Apple comes out with are not really on the cheap end of the spectrum. Then again, the customers of Apple are very loyal and are not of the penny-pinching kind. They are not going to start buying computers from Dell or cellular phones from Motorola just so they are able to save several dollars. The most they would do is to wait just a while longer before they consider upgrading their Apple products. Another turnaround made by Jobs was in the year 2001, when he had introduced the iPod – it had then defined and obviously dominated the entire market of portable music players, and is very much responsible for the resuscitation of the computer line of the company. At the moment, the Mac computer is the best kind of personal computer on the market and no longer looked at as a toy. The same can be said about the iPhone as well, and that nothing else could ever come close to that.