_Dear Friends,_
The earthquake that rattled Virginia on Tuesday was felt all the way up in Burlington, Vermont, but I missed it. I was on my motorcycle and the vibrations must have been earth-movement silencing. It looks like Hurricane Irene is going to head up the East Coast and will probably ultimately impact our weather with a lot of rain and wind. There have been hurricanes that have hit Vermont, but generally we just get the remnants with lots of rain and wind.
The big news this week is that Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple and Tim Cook is the new CEO per Apple’s succession plan. Steve is staying on the Board and will become the Chairman of the Board. He is also staying on the Disney Board. While Steve has resigned because he felt he could not fulfill his duties as CEO, I believe that this is a smart move on Steve and Apple’s part. It is clear that Steve needs to work less and take care of himself and cannot be the day-to-day CEO that Apple needs. It is time for him to be the wise visionary helping to guide the company and let Tim Cook handle the enormous workload that comes with managing the most valuable company in the world.
Many are taking this news as if they are writing Steve’s obituary, and that is not the way it should be. Apple is so fortunate to have Tim Cook as CEO; he has run Apple for quite some time as Steve worked on his health, and Apple had flourished under his guidance. Apple’s bench of management and creative talent is very deep, and I know that the team at Apple will be working their Chair quite a bit, too. Steve’s vision is alive and well at Apple, and it is an infectious vision of innovation, excellence and execution.
I have watched Tim Cook both as COO and as interim CEO for many years. I remember well the times before Tim took charge of Apple’s operations. I remember the waste, the sloppy product transitions, the enormous surpluses of discontinued products, the delays in production. There is absolutely no way that Apple would be where it is now without Tim Cook. Let me say that again: Tim Cook has been the reason Apple is able to take a new product like the iPhone or the iPad and, in what seems like a blink of an eye, ramp up from selling the first one to selling millions and owning the category.
Apple is going to be fine, and, as Steve has said many times, Apple’s finest days lie ahead. I do not think Apple will change much, at least not in the short term. Tim said, “We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.” I know that here at Small Dog Electronics we are very confident in Apple’s team and wish Steve the very best in his new role with the company. There is too much Steve Jobs in Apple’s DNA to think that it is a one-man show. We are so proud to be an Apple partner. Just watch their dust!