Let's face it: Steve will have to step down sooner or later, too

I think that Apple will be better off with Steve not in control of the company. Yes, he has a lot of innovative ideas, but I think that he stifles Apple's growth as a software company by being so adamantly opposed to licensing OS X to other PC manufacturers and not porting more Mac apps to Windows. I would wager that once he's not in control, Apple will seriously consider doing those things. And that will be good for the company and consumers alike.

I have to disagree with an earlier comment about Phil Schiller. I think he's a terrible speaker. I cringe when I see him in promo videos. He's got no affect, no rhythm, no charm, no body language. Maybe I'd have to see him give a full-blown demo. I always assumed he was head of marketing not for his *personal* skills, but because he knew how to run a marketing *organization*. But maybe I'm wrong.

I didn't care for Jonathan Ives's style either, in the promo video I saw. He seemed very unnatural. But he's not in marketing.

I think Jonathan Ive is a fitting successor. In my opinion he's charismatic and I think the way he speaks shows a lot of his enthusiasm for the products that he designed. Well, judging from those product promo vids that is.

I see no better successor, and I think he'd take over Jobs.

Apple is a cult of personality. When Steve leaves, they are screwed.

Most of us here, if we were being honest, like the fact that Apple is cutting-edge and a little cultish. We adore explaining to the curious the sleek styling and the awsome performance that comes with a Mac. But the reason we have these is as a direct result of Steve's leadership. If he were to leave, God bless the money hungry and the greedy if they take over and start making the company into a M$/Dell clone. I'd cry for the end of an era if that happened.

On the other hand, I somehow believe that if he were to go (officially), only death could keep him from meddling in the company (actually).

Steve will leave in a coffin! That man has too much love for that company to leave.....

We're putting his head in a jar. He's running Apple forever.

Jobs is too much of a perfectionist, i bet that he will pick someone just like him or has the same ideas as him to be his replacement...

I don't think steve jobs likes people very much and he is not known for charitable giving, so i doubt he will follow gates as the savior of the third world. i think steve likes making insanely great and high margin widgets and will do so until someone carts him out to an asylum or a hole in the ground...

look for bill gates to run for president after the next 2 presidential cycles once he has crowned himself the most caring liberal in the world. so go park that gates2016.com now!

But that's the point, Matthew, isn't it? The early- to mid-90s represented a time when a Jobs-less Apple tried (and failed) to expand market share. The fear is that when Jobs is gone, history will simply repeat itself -- but without the prospect of Jobs returning to right the ship this time.

The other possibility is a Jobs-driven market expansion. He won't be dumb enough to repeat the mistakes of Performa and simply rebrand old machines with a new name. But it doesn't mean he'll succeed, either. It boils down to this: if an expansion is inevitable, then, we're better off with Jobs leading it.

My original point really was that it seems impossible that anyone could replace Jobs with respect to his track record of resisting compromise of vision in the name of simply increasing market share.