Apple without Jobs? All Will Be Well, Says Apple Insider

Robert X. Cringely, the legendary former InfoWorld columnist, weighs in about the recent health issues swirling around Apple founder Steve Jobs. Cringley's conclusion? Apple will be fine, regardless of the outcome.

Read excerpts below from Cringely's blog or go to http://ow.ly/3VZ for the whole story:

"I knew things were bad when Steve Jobs didn’t make even a token video appearance at Macworld...So now Steve is off on his six month (or longer) medical leave, readjusting those hormones, and the press is abuzz with what the heck Apple will do without Steve."

"Apple will be fine.

"Steve Jobs is an amazing chief executive, clearly the best of his era, but that doesn’t make him irreplaceable. True, he saved Apple, but now Apple is saved. The company is rich, has growing market share and a mindshare dominance envied throughout the computer AND music AND video AND mobile phone industries. Steve could die tomorrow and Apple would be fine for years to come. Apple might even be better."

"Steve, for all his design insight and high standards is also a pain in the ass, but it is his narcissism – keeping the whole company on edge and terrified, will he or won’t he? – that has to have taken a toll and may well land the company in court. Twenty thousand people are sitting around wondering whether their jobs are endangered because he is ill and that’s just crazy."

"In the long run the goal won’t be to replace Steve, anyway, but to transcend him, because Steve was far from the perfect leader."

"The last time Steve Jobs left Apple, back in 1985, the entire company breathed a sigh of relief. Steve back then was an undisciplined brat...It took learning to run NeXT on a budget and almost losing the company to teach Steve how to be a leader. It took learning to leave Pixar alone to teach Steve that there were some things – many things – best left to others more talented than he. Those two experiences, added to his fall from grace in 1985, made Steve Jobs the leader he is today. Still all elbows and shoulder blades, he somehow makes it work."

"I feel for the guy. It’s not his health scare, but his lack of true friends that worries me. When your best friend is Larry Ellison you know you are in trouble. But that may be the best that either man can do. "

"So here’s to Steve Jobs, may he return in six months or go off and do anything else he likes. But don’t worry about Apple.

"Apple’s on a roll."