In the Cold War era, a cottage industry was created around determining the geopolitical significance of Khrushchev or Brezhnev not appearing at the May Day reviewing stand. For silicon valley, it is Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Tuesday’s new product announcement.
Was Tuesday’s announcement of new MacBooks a cryptic message to investors worried about Jobs’ health? We all remember the dive Apple’s stock took when a rumor (which turned out to be false) spread that the Apple leader had been rushed to the hospital for heart trouble.
So, when Jobs shared the stage with Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook and Senior Vice-President of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive, speculation began that Apple was sending a message to Wall Street: don’t worry, we have a plan.
“We think Apple may be involving them in Jobs’ public appearances to
reassure investors that a succession plan is in place,” Piper Jaffray’s Andrew Murphy tells Cult of Mac.
Despite the potential, Murphy feels the inclusion of the two senior executives isn’t a sign Jobs is heading for the exit.
“That said, we’re not ignoring the fact that Ive and Cook took the stage,” Murphy wrote by e-mail.
However, that hasn’t stopped some Apple watchers from speculating on the most minute of details of Tuesday’s event: down to the clothing worn by Cook and Ive.
Seeming to match Jobs’ trademark jeans and black turtleneck, Cook appeared on stage dressed like the CEO. One opinion even theorized Ive’s Steve-like wardrobe was designed to mark a younger Apple head.
Possibly hoping not to spark further uproar in the markets, staid Gartner begged off when asked about the issue.
“There is too much speculation in this story to comment,” analyst Charles Smulders told Cult of Mac.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
