Survey finds customers confident in Apple without Steve Jobs

Apple will hopefully roll on. For me, personally, Steve and his current physical condition, health issues and all remind me very much of my father battling cancer. If he's at the point where I believe him to be, he's likely been having meetings with his confidants in a bit of a scramble to disseminate as much of his knowledge, his vision as he can cram in. The man, although a rough guy to like in early years, has built an amazing legacy. There are a lot of people at Apple who will have the honor and respect to carry his mantle. If not, it'll take them a good 7-10 years to piss away their 50+ Billion. ;-)

I'm not seeing a situation where I'd abandon Apple products. While I use OS X and Windows side by side (even INSIDE a VM) on a day-to-day basis, I prefer the Apple hardware experience. Working in IT, I have seen a trend where a lot of IT Geek types have moved to Apple and NOT to Linux at least for their workstations. Seeing as IT tends to push trends in business, it should help Apple stick around and continue their growth trend.

I don't see Apple making a tremendous penetration into Business. There just isn't much LOB software for Apple, and what there is, taking CRM as an example, is really infantile by comparison to the Windows options.

Apple wasn't the same last time Jobs left. So, Google will win. Bummer, I have a lot of stuff to sell on eBay to beat the wave.

Well, I stuck with Apple the first time so not likely that I will abandon Apple products now.

In any case, where do you go after having used Apple products for over two decades? There just isn't anything else out there right now to compare.

The first question is, is there an alternative to buying Apple right now. I don't mean is there any other OSs out there that can adequately replace my Macs. I mean, is there anything nearly as good?

Windows - No
eComstation - No
Haiku - No
Linux (pick your distribution) - No
Chrome OS - No
WebOS - No

Will any of them realistically be a replacement in the future?

Windows - This is made by a company that I don't agree with their business practices at all. I've been around 25 years. I don't see any situation where I will be buying Windows in any version or any other product by MS in the foreseeable future.

Chrome OS - Google and their "Don't Be Evil" is a laugh. They are the same type of company as Microsoft but in on-line ads.

eComStation - The biggest problem I have with OS is the lack of a good video editing program that "just works". Those last two words are key. Yes their are products. I don't like them as they are now. This is a deal breaker for me. Not that I won't use it but I won't be my main OS.

Haiku OS - It's still in Alpha. I loved BeOS and I will love Haiku, or I hope to... some day. PS: Someone get this working in Virtual PC. PLEASE. The same with eComstation (a.k.a. OS/2).

Linux - I personally think it will take 3 to 5 years before it gets to the point where I *** might *** enjoy using any Linux distribution. I use it but don't enjoy it right now. I've used several recently.

WebOS - It has possibilities and maybe in three to five years if web apps can be as good as native apps in Mac OS X then I'll think about it.

There are others out there. But there is no OS right now or the in foreseeable future that I can picture myself using as my main machine.

I believe Steve has likely been building a team that understands his vision that can take over for time to come. All this innovation is not Steve alone, but Steve and his team. Steve has been the face of the company, but I believe the groundwork has been in place for years, likely since his first bought with cancer. Also, I do not believe all the decisions Apple makes are not just from Jobs alone. YOu may find these people less flashy, but if they have the right vision I feel the company can still thrive without Steve Jobs. On the other hand it's just nice knowing he's there.

I think the company has come quite a long way toward respecting and emulating the vision, ethos, and taste of the man the soda vendors and suits kicked out back in the mid-80's. It will take many years for the people who have been there over the past decade to lose what he has built. The respect he has outside the tech world will keep that vision going long after he retires.

At this point Apple corporate culture is set to be able to handle Steve's absence (hopefully temporarily). But at some point in the future, Apple will have a leader who doesn't have what Steve had and the company will go downhill. This is guaranteed. The only question is: when? Apple won't be making insanely great products a thousand years from now. How about a hundred? Fifty? Ten? I'm hoping for closer to fifty than ten.