Is Steve Jobs Sick?

By Jim on August 8th, 2008

There’s been a lot of talk about the “Mac Cult” or “Apple Cult” in the media. There’s even been a popular book about it called, appropriately enough, The Cult of Mac. But I’ll let you in on a little secret…there is no “cult of mac” and there’s no “apple cult” either. There is, however, a very large and powerful cult but it’s one of personality not product.

Yep, it’s the Cult of Steve Jobs and what a powerful and dangerous cult it is in its own way. The danger comes from mistaken and silly notion that Steve Jobs somehow IS Apple. Contrary to what many people seem to think, Apple is FAR more than Steve Jobs. The company is comprised of thousands and thousands of talented individuals who produce some great products.

Before I go any further with this column, I want to be clear that I respect what Jobs has done at the helm of Apple since his return. Let’s face it, the company was a total basket case for the most part and Jobs has done an amazing job turning it all around and making Apple a leader.

Mac market share is up, the iPhone has roared out of the starting gate and has set the mobile phone world on fire and it’s on its way to having thousands and thousands of apps available for it. And let’s not forget Apple’s best-selling iPods as well, they’ve been updated to the same basic feature set (more or less, minus the phone part) as the iPhone.

Read the Rest