Steve Jobs’ resignation unlikely to change Apple in near future

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New Apple CEO Tim Cook (seen here last year) is responsible for much of the company’s success. | Justin Sullivan~Getty Images

Updated: November 16, 2011 1:19AM

Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO of Apple, citing his inability to continue to meet his duties, marks the end of his tenure as Apple’s chief executive and the effective day-to-day leader of the company, not the end of his life. That’s the first thing that should be stated loud and clear, given his multiple medical leaves of absence.

The other thing is that it’s unlikely that his resignation will have any great impact on the company for at least a couple of years. Steve Jobs’ health has been an ongoing issue since 2004, and it’s utterly inconceivable that the company has locked itself into strategies that cannot proceed smoothly without Jobs’ day-to-day presence. Jobs’ resignation letter, in suggesting his replacement, references a clear succession plan that had already been drawn up.

Tim Cook, former chief operations officer and Apple’s newly named CEO, has been standing in for Jobs during his medical leaves and enjoys a fine reputation as an Apple insider who’s responsible for a good portion of the company’s current success, mostly in managing processes and strategies for securing materials and manufacturing. Apple continued its upward arc during Cook’s substitute tenures.

I also can’t help but conclude that Jobs wanted to hand over the CEO job while he was still capable of guiding the transition. Jobs hasn’t left Apple; he remains both an employee and chairman of the board.

What Apple loses in its second post-Jobs era is the energizing and driving force who instinctively knew the story Apple was meant to tell with its products, and aimed Apple’s people and resources at clear targets. He wasn’t the engineer who would come up with the idea for a new generation of multitouch tablets and phones. He was the executive who heard that idea, could identify it as the next logical step — not just for Apple, but for technology in general — and could mobilize 13,000 employees into thinking that the iPad was the most important thing that they, personally, would ever build.

Jobs was right with the Apple II, he was right with the Macintosh, he was right with NeXT, he was right with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.

It’s a loss, but Apple has formed a successful culture of people who think a certain way. Further, it’s unusual for a company of Apple’s size to be so cohesive. The company behaves as though their one product is “everything with our logo on it” and there’s no chance of Apple shaking itself apart during the transition.

Apple will go on. Still, it’s very sad news. I’m thinking the same things I did when Charles Schulz announced that he was unable to continue writing and drawing the “Peanuts” strip, after nearly a 50-year run.

It’s clear that Jobs, like Schulz, didn’t work for the money, for the fame, or for the power. Apple was the complete expression of everything Jobs wanted to do, professionally. I can’t even imagine how difficult it must have been for him to walk away from that office.