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Without Steve Jobs How Will Apple Fair?


Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
News

According to a report from The Street, it is anticipated that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will temporarily leave the company. Last month, he handed over day-to-day operations of the company to Apple COO Tim Cook. This transfer of responsibilities was taken on the basis that Steve Jobs is undergoing treatment for the effects of the pancreatic cancer he contracted back in 2004. Apple has always been reputed to be a company whose rise and fall largely depended on its co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs. The question on everyone’s mind seems to be: how will the company fair after Steve Jobs leaves?

According to a customer survey conducted by the company, Apple consumers seem to be unshaken about the possible departure of Jobs; however, analysts say that there are still causes for concern. The queries on the survey largely targeted near-term outlooks for the company. For example, to the question that asked whether Apple users would continue to buy Apple’s products during Job’s hiatus, 93 percent of respondents answered in the affirmative. Notably, the same survey was conducted in 2008 with 92 percent indicating that Job’s departure would not affect their decision to continue to buy Apple products. While there are not indications that Job’s departure will be permanent, it is notable that the survey only captures consumerism for Apple products with the prospect of Job’s temporary departure rather than permanent.

The volatility of Apple recently has been tied to this incident as well as a decline in the sales of the iPhone. However, Apple is poised to release its iPad 2 and iPhone 5 in September. The stock is currently down 6.6 percent after hitting an all-time high of $364.90. This is an outlier on the Dow considering the Dow in aggregate is down 2 percent.

Sources:

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11019421/1/5-signs-steve-jobs-absence-matters.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10973034/6/steve-jobs-tops-risks-for-apple-in-2011.html

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/02/23/survey_finds_consumers_believe_apple_is_biggeb_than_its_ceo_steve_jobs.html/



Article by Andrew Timm

The views expressed are the subjective opinion of the article's author and not of FinancialAdvisory.com



Tags: apple , ipad 2 , iphone 5 , steve jobs