As you've probably heard by now, Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple, after long-term illness finally brought the day where he.. "could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO", handing the reigns over to Chief Operating Officer' Tim Cook.
On what is without doubt a momentous day for Apple, we thought we'd ponder what difference the resignation could make for the future of the electrical giant. (And don't worry, there's not a pun in sight - see here and here!).
Initially, the impression seems to be: not much. The Wall Street Journal reports that insiders at Apple have asserted that Jobs will remain 'closely involved in the company's product strategy' despite Cook's takeover, and this seems to be a sentiment repeated across tech-world. So Apple will go on as usual...right?
Not according to the markets. In the after-hours trading after the announcement, Apple's shares tumbled by over 5% - a similar market response occurred after Jobs' announcement in January that he was taking medical leave.
As every door closes, a window must open.. and bursting in through the window comes Samsung. The recent announcement caused a 2.5% rise in Samsungs share price, with a lesser increase of 1.7% for fellow Koreans LG.
As you may or may not know, Samsung is currently engaged in a drawn out legal dispute over various aspects of the Samsung Galaxy range that may or may not have been copied from Apple's products (read more here). This announcement can be nothing but good news for them. Regardless of legal outcomes, Samsung will see this as an opportunity to finally make a grab for an extra slice of the smartphone and tablet markets, a move they have obviously been plotting for some time - and now is the time for this grab to occur.
However, industry experts as well as many influential investors believe this Apple stock price is only a temporary blip, and that Apple will continue its spectacular growth in the long term - and its hard to find a good reason to disagree with this.
The future of Apple really comes down to whether they can convince the world that they are capable of creating innovative products without Jobs as CEO; they may well have a roadmap for the next few years - with plans for the iPhone 5-6/iPad 3-4 sketched out in some Apple HQ top drawer - but the question remains whether they will be able to pull off these planned innovations as well as without Jobs at the helm of day-to-day operation, let alone think up new ones.
However, during his medical leave periods of the last few years, Apple have released arguably their most succesful products to date. His role as 'Chairman of the Board' may not even effect how Apple works day-to-day - I'm sure they have adapted to maintaining the same high standards of innovation and marketing when he's been away over the last few years. It goes without saying that Jobs will have laid down some very solid foundations at Apple, knowing his time as CEO may be coming to an end, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were even more dominant in the years to come.
What do you think lies next for Apple? Let us know in the comments.
