The Magical Apple
January 19th, 2011
For the past decade, Steve Jobs has been the synonym for Apple. He was the brand. When people bought MacBooks, they were buying Jobs. But recent events have people speculating that Apple is not just about Jobs anymore, has the Apple brand been redefined?
As Mr. Steve Jobs takes his third medical leave in his employment at Apple, the IT giant remains unshaken. Stock prices dropped by a mere ~4% but managed to make its way back within the next day. People are unconcerned by Jobs’ absence, as Apple releases its first quarterly report with indications of a 78% increase in profits, to a record-breaking $6 billion, or $6.43 per share. While five years ago, the Street would have seen to a drop of 20, 25%.
Given the speculations on the release dates of the iPhone 5 and iPad 2, Mr. Jobs may not be personally introducing these products to us this time around. People believe that Apple will run just fine without Jobs, at least in 2, 3 years. I suspect this strong faith in the company is the product of years of record breaking miracles performed by Apple. Just in the last year alone, Apple made tremendous breakthroughs in the market: the iPad, Gadget of the Year and fastest selling non-cellular phone gadget in world history; the iPhone 4, the fastest selling mobile handset in world history; and also the new MacBook air, the highest performing lightweight notebook.
The Apple brand is the record breaker.