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Jonathan Ive in Line to Succeed Steve Jobs?

Sunday December 9, 2007 11:06 am PST by Arnold Kim
Though mostly speculative, Timesonline.co.uk profiles Apple's Vice-President of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive, as a possible successor CEO to Steve Jobs.

The author suggests that there has been some call for a plan for 'Apple after Steve Jobs', who is currently 52 years old. Jonathan Ive might be the man to take that place. Ive and Jobs are said to share a similar perfectionist attitude and are in close contact on a daily basis.

I think Steve Jobs has found somebody in Jony who knows how to complete or even exceed his vision, and do it time and time again, said Chee Pearlman, who hosted the event at which Mr Ive spoke four years ago.


Of course, some doubt that Ive has the charisma to replace Jobs as CEO, in what has been a very public role.

The question of Steve Jobs successor has been raised before, with one suggestion that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt might have taken a temporary role as Apple CEO during the option-backdating scandal.
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bommai
55 months ago
When Steve was gone for a month during cancer treatment, Tim Cook took over. He has been second in command for a while now and I think he is the most likely candidate.
Rating: 1 Positives / 0 Negatives
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Blue Velvet
55 months ago
I would choose competence over charisma any day.
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Willis
55 months ago
Seeing as Ive has come out with most of recent Apple products, you can start to understand why. However, if Ive wasnt guiding the designs, who would take his place?!
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Eric Lewis
55 months ago
Id be a good CEO!
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viniciusc
55 months ago
That sounds good, Jon seems to be a very competent and visionist person.
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InkMaster
55 months ago

Seeing as Ive has come out with most of recent Apple products, you can start to understand why. However, if Ive wasnt guiding the designs, who would take his place?!


Why me of course, is there any other logical choice?
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flopticalcube
55 months ago

I would choose competence over charisma any day.

Unfortunately both are required to lead a successful company these days. Some people can hide incompetence but charisma is easy to spot and impossible to fake so we end up with CEO's that look competent and charismatic but are truly incompetent. Jobs was a rare duck indeed.
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valdore
55 months ago
They'd better get the right person or our stock will plummet the second Jobs slips on the lane at a bowling alley.
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OwlsAndApples
55 months ago
Ive is a genius, but he's not a showman like Jobs.
Anyway...he'd still be my first choice.
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MacsRgr8
55 months ago
Well, he has been my choice for a some years now.
It *seems* he has the vision, perseverance, charisma close to that of Mr. Jobs.

But.... but.... there is no 2nd Steve. Once the day comes that Steve announces his retirement, Apple shares would fall faster than a free fall.
I only hope that in the long term it wouldn't matter so much.

The biggest stuff has been done:
- Mac OS X
- Intel
- iPod
- iPhone
- iTMS

Keep up this good work for another 5 years, and I assume Steve's huge influence can start to relax...
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