Larry Ellison Sees Dark Future for Apple Without Steve Jobs

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Business mogul and island owner Larry Ellison believes that Steve Jobs was the key success factor in Apple.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison appeared CBS This Morning and expressed a lack of faith in Apple now that Steve Jobs is gone.

Interviewer Charlie Rose asked Ellison what he thought it was about Jobs that made him great at Apple. Ellison had very complimentary things to say, comparing Jobs to Edison and Picasso. Rose followed up with the question, "What happens to Apple without Steve?"


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"We already know," responded Ellison. "We conducted the experiment; it's already been done.

"We saw Apple with Steve Jobs," Ellison said, raising his finger toward the sky. "We saw Apple without Steve Jobs," as he lowered his finger. "We saw Apple with Steve Jobs," raising his finger again. "Now, we're going to see Apple without Steve Jobs," as he dropped his finger.

Now nearly two years since the loss of Steve Jobs, Apple remains an immensely successful and profitable company. The question remains, however, if Apple can keep up its track record for innovative design that manages to capture the mass market.

Apple is expected to hold an iPhone event on September 10.

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
40 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    He's right on!
    Reply
  • michael908
    Guess it's hard to keep the "cult" status of their product without their leader dead. Now who will tell the consumers what they want?
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    No Jobs = No BRILLIANCE
    Reply
  • John Bauer-1363825
    As much as people like to rip on Apple, including me, I will be maybe just a little sorry to see them go- they had great thing going, but it's time for that to end.

    The only thing that would keep Apple alive, is if Wozniak took the reigns again. And if that happens, we may start to see Apple innovating again, and not being the recipe company that they are.
    Reply
  • WithoutWeakness
    Jobs died 2 years ago and everyone was talking about this in the weeks following his death. Why did it take this guy 2 years to realize this?
    Reply
  • John Bauer-1363825
    11345246 said:
    Jobs died 2 years ago and everyone was talking about this in the weeks following his death. Why did it take this guy 2 years to realize this?

    Because now this had time to come to fruition, it isn't speculation anymore.
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    +1 ^
    Reply
  • rantoc
    WithoutWeakness: Now that the extra sympathy for Mr.Jobs passing have died down and that along with a stock value that have been on a constant decline (from 700$ to $450 in a year) its more fact than guesses, that makes the "specialists" dare to "speculate" without risk of being wrong.

    Get me right - Apple did a tremendous work with the iPhone one and have my respect for that but since then the competition have gone from following to leading the market in darn short time along with the expectations that the future innovations from Apple will be lackluster.

    How did that happen? Exactly the same thing that happened back in the early PC days, no need for history lessons only that it seems some companies will ever learn from their past mistakes.
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    The "I" ERA has run it's course.
    Reply
  • memadmax
    The ONLY reason why apple exists today is because of that stupid iPod >_>
    Reply