Is Apple finally moving out of Steve Jobs' shadow? (News Analysis)

New Delhi, Sep 13
For anyone out there who is not a part of Apple Inc.'s workforce, it would be very hard to imagine the Apple logo without connecting the name of Apple's late founder Steve Jobs in their heads. But the truth is that the company's latest announcements, launches and strategies are in deviation of Jobs' ideologies and thinking.

Apple on Wednesday unveiled a new stylus called the Apple Pencil along with a 12.9-inch tablet (iPad Pro) while Jobs during a speech in 2007 during the launch of the Multi Touch technology showed his disgust towards using styluses.

"Who wants a stylus?!" Jobs joked at the conference in 2007. "You have to get 'em, put 'em away, you lose 'em, yuck. Nobody wants a stylus." He is also believed to have told his biographer Walter Isaacson that "as soon as you have a stylus, you're dead."

Tim Cook, who took over as CEO after Steve Jobs passed away, has always taken a different stand from Job's views which included things like a high degree of resistance over the idea of launching a larger screen-sized phone or a humoungous tablet.

Interestingly, Cook launched the super-size iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014 and it aided Apple to have the most profitable quarter of any company ever.

Another example of the company walking away from Jobs' shadow would be the slew of services launches including Apple TV. Jobs was always against Microsoft and Apple doing any kind of streaming or subscription services.

The Apple Watch which was launched in March was also another deviation or one can say Cook's original idea to take the company to new revenue heights. The watch was designed completely under Cook's leadership with no input from the late founder.

The release of 7.9-inch iPad mini in 2012 in contrast to Job's aversion to small tablets also goes to show the changing ideals of the multinational tech giant. Cook was also at the helm of buying Beats, the audio engineering firm, for $3 billion which is again in direct contrast from the late founder's opinion that building innovation was far better than buying it.

The change in strategies by Cook seems to have worked well as Apple shares jumped from $54 to $110 since Jobs died, resulting in a market capitalisation of over $600 billion.

Another success story for Apple would be that it has gradually dominated the high-end smartphone space globally. In China, which its second biggest market, iPhone has grown nearly 75 percent year-on-year.

Interestingly, Cook in a tribute service for Jobs in 2011 had said that the late founder had advised him to never ask what Jobs would do. "Just do what's right," he said."It's time for the rest of us to let go too, and stop asking: "What would Jobs do?" Cook had said at the service.