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Apple’s next CEO and the future (or lack of it) of cloud computing

Written by: Dennis Sellers

Article Overview: Yesterday I talked about the “Steve Jobs effect” on consumers as to their likelihood of buying Apple products if Jobs were to permanently step down as CEO of the company. Today I’d like to look at some pundits’ prognostications on who might replace Jobs whenever he steps down.

Apple’s next CEO and the future (or lack of it) of cloud computing

Yesterday I talked about the “Steve Jobs effect” on consumers as to their likelihood of buying Apple products if Jobs were to permanently step down as CEO of the company. Today I’d like to look at some pundits’ prognostications on who might replace Jobs whenever he steps down.

Obviously, a possible successor could be found among Jobs’ hand-picked management team that includes Phil Schiller, Tim Cook, Jonathan Ive, Scott Forstall, Bertrand Serlet, Ron Johnson, Peter Oppenheimer and others. With Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, running things on a day-to-basis in Jobs’ absence, he would seem to be the heir apparent.

However, in the latest edition of Mac/Life, Jeffrey Young, analyst and author of iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, doesn’t think it will be any of these folks. He thinks that Apple should be led by someone like Eric Schmidt (head honcho of Google), Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google) “or the kid who runs Facebook.” Why?

“The trend is toward netbooks, Internet access and an Internet desktop that doesn’t care what your hardware is. Apple is stuck in the old thinking of selling the whole thing …”

I have to disagree with Young on this, as I think that “selling the whole thing” isn’t going to be passe for a looong time to come—and probably not ever. I don’t think that most folks are going to want under-powered hardware with all their apps, docs, photos, movies, etc. in “the cloud.”

The premise of “cloud computing” is simple. In the future, we won’t have or even need all our data or software programs on our own computers. They’ll be floating around somewhere on somebody else’s servers, accessible via the Internet. A vast, interconnected “nebula” of other people’s data and servers, hence the word, “Cloud.”

But I don’t think that’s going to happen on a large scale. I think most people want to feel ownership of their stuff. And there are risks.
Consider this scenario from brand consultant Hugh Macleod: “But nobody seems to be talking about Power Laws. Nobody’s saying that one day a single company may possibly emerge to dominate The Cloud, the way Google came to dominate Search, the way Microsoft came to dominate Software. Monopoly issues aside, could you imagine such a company? We wouldn’t be talking about a multi-billion dollar business like today’s Microsoft or Google. We’re talking about something that could feasibly dwarf them. We’re potentially talking about a multi-trillion dollar company. Possibly the largest company to have ever existed.”

I do think more and more data—including music, movies and books—will increasingly go digital as time passes. However, that means we’ll need more devices, such as home media severs, and more powerful computers, iPods, iPhones, etc. instead of less powerful ones. So Apple’s idea of “selling the whole thing” will, if anything, become even more valid.

Related Articles
  What is 'Cloud computing' ?
  Cloud Computing: How the Future Looks
  Benefits of Cloud Strategy
  Applications in Cloud platforms
  Using the Cloud for Boosting Your Personal Productivity

Article Tags: apple products, brand consultant, eric schmidt, google, head honcho, internet desktop, jonathan ive, looong time, mac life, macleod, nebula, own computers, peter oppenheimer, phil schiller, schmidt head, second act, sergey brin, software programs, steve jobs, tim cook



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