Why Steve Jobs chose Tim Cook

While it cannot come as a surprise that the iconic Steve Jobs has stepped down after prolonged illness, as CEO of Apple, the importance of this moment in Technology History simply cannot be denied. The stock tanked 5 percent and understandably so (except that five years ago it might have tanked 15 percent), as the most visible and well-known innovator chose to call it a day. There are very few companies in the world you would associate as viscerally with one person as you would Apple with Jobs. So why has Jobs chosen Tim Cook? [caption id=“attachment_69082” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Tim Cook is the ops man. AFP”] [/caption] He is the ops man. Whether the iPhone launch or the the next version of the iPad, Cook has made sure they got to the stores on time. He’s managed the end-to-end supply chain as the COO of Apple. So yes, if you were worried about marketplace response, this one’s taken care of. In the past, when Jobs took his periods of time off, Cook was the man who had stepped in as acting-CEO. In a market that is driven by distribution, retail experience, and delivery as much as it is by innovation, Cook is likely the man who has made Apple products hard to beat and the product pipeline, breathtakingly full. The other person to watch is also Scott Forstall who is SVP of iOS. The person some would have expected to become CEO. Probably familiar to most of us because he was one of the few faces on stage with Jobs. That he hasn’t also signals that Jobs will likely continue to be closely associated with product strategy or that upsetting the creative apple cart is not something the company wants to do at this point in time. In-charge of the Mac OS, Forstall will probably play the most crucial role in Apple’s competitive future.