Jobs has said that Microsoft won the PC wars, and Apple should work on the next great thing.
The logical, disruptive evolution of the iPad is for it to improve until it meets the needs of PC users - and then replace it.
Production reports of the next iPad (iPad 3) indicate it uses the retina display (a logical progression), with a resolution of 2048x1536 - putting it a step beyond the mainstream desktop. A quad-core A6 CPU is also a logical increment, putting it on par with a mainstream PC. http://www.macvideo.tv/distribution/news/index.cfm?newsId=32...
This would complete Jobs' journey from creating the PC, to losing the PC, to replacing the PC. A great end of a career; a great time for a biography. And something you would really love to see happen in your lifetime.
I find it less likely that this move was a matter of appeasing the board and that Steve will still be CEO without the CEO title. Seems more likely (as has been discussed elsewhere) that this is an attempt to soften the blow to the stock price.
If Steve suddenly disappeared, and would no longer be at Apple in any capacity, I'm sure the stock price would dive.
I find a simpler (and more probably correct) explanation to be that Jobs' health is deteriorating, which has prompted both the rush on the publication of the book and the resignation from the CEO position.
The idea that Steve is going to pull out a "...and one more thing" in his final hour (or on his death bed) seems like Cringly has been watching too many movies.
Also call me cynical but I figured the leaked news of Apple's board talking to potential CEO's had more to do with softening the blow to the market when Jobs did inevitably step down than a real split between Jobs and the board.
I think you're right, that his health has deteriorated to such a point that he is literally preparing to die.
That said, if that's not the case, then Cringely is probably more right than he knows. Steve Jobs doesnt seem like the type of person who can just walk away from his life's work and still be fulfilled.
"Where is Apple going? What’s the grand plan? We know there is such a plan — there has to be, Apple’s moves have been too deliberate, if inscrutable, to be some executive random walk."
I'm not sure I see that. Apple sees gaps in the market, and makes high quality products to fill them. I'm not sure there has to be some grand, overarching theme to the whole thing. They make stuff when they know they can make it well and sell it well.
The iPhone originally started development as the iPad, then they deduced the product would make more impact as a phone. The AppleTV uses the same internals as the iPhone/iPad line, just waiting to have AppStore access turned on. Much more deliberate than say, HP who bailed on the market 48 days after launch, or Windows and the Zune/PlaysForSure fiascos, not to mention the long delayed Windows Phone strategy (vs 6.5, etc).
Honestly, I don't think Cringely has said a single astute or accurate thing about Apple in a long while. His track record is terrible--just a stream of semi-coherent link-bait. Someone should put a garbage disposal over Cringely's mouth; at least that way his garbage would be easier to digest.
Replacing Tim Cook with somebody from the outside would be yet another John Sculley moment.
The problem with some company boards is that they want to be seen as doing something, and choosing the obvious candidate seems like doing nothing. So they choose to do something they shouldn't have done...
The logical, disruptive evolution of the iPad is for it to improve until it meets the needs of PC users - and then replace it. Production reports of the next iPad (iPad 3) indicate it uses the retina display (a logical progression), with a resolution of 2048x1536 - putting it a step beyond the mainstream desktop. A quad-core A6 CPU is also a logical increment, putting it on par with a mainstream PC. http://www.macvideo.tv/distribution/news/index.cfm?newsId=32...
This would complete Jobs' journey from creating the PC, to losing the PC, to replacing the PC. A great end of a career; a great time for a biography. And something you would really love to see happen in your lifetime.