Friday 27 March 2009

Jobs at WWDC '09?

Apple have announced today that WWDC, Worldwide Developers Conference, will start on June 8th 2009. From a technology viewpoint we have to expect a new iPhone, the full release of iPhone OS 3.0 and Snow Leopard. On their own these are three exciting announcements but there may be one more announcement that will blow the rest away. The return or retirement of Steve Jobs.

I suspect that we will see Steve Jobs appear at WWDC during the Keynote. Unfortunately I also believe that this will be his final appearance as Apple CEO at WWDC. If Steve is unable to remain as CEO then the best time for him to leave will be after Apple announce three excellent new products that will keep the company secure for another year.

My only concern is 2+ years down the line. I've heard people say that since Tim Cook is doing such a good job as acting CEO he will make a good CEO. However, lets not forget that Steve is still in charge. He made it clear in January that he will still be making the big decisions during his medical leave. Lets also remember that the products that we are seeing now were planned and developed in Steve's watch and we haven't seen the Cook products yet. I don't doubt that Cook will do a good job and has an excellent management team in place but lets not think that the departure of Jobs won't impact the stock price because it will, hard.

Image from WWDC 2008 taken from Apple.com