Apple and Google: all change

It was sad news this week to read that Steve Jobs was taking a second break from Apple which he founded with Steve Wozniak back before digital time began.

Depending on which news reel or blog you read he may be away for good, for two years or for six months but this time it seems his pancreatic cancer is more serious and debilitating.

Tim Cook will take over again in the interim but everyone knows he will be his successor. Jobs was (is) one of a few CEOs besotted by good design. It is rare to find such an obsession with any current NYSE or FTSE 100 CEO. And it is the main reason why Apple fans remain Apple fans even in the dark times of Sculley et al. Jonny Ives, CBE, (Apple's main designer) remains close to Jobs and would frequently see him twice a day to talk through often the tiniest details of a product or a package. I cannot think of another CEO anywhere in the world who has a design DNA chipped in.  

It's too early to talk about Jobs' obituary, at least from Apple, though I am sure Obit writers are sharpening their pencils. Nature abhors a vacuum, much as shareholders do, and now is the time for Apple to build the "new" Apple much as Clinton and Blair did for the New Democrats and New Labour.  

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Meanwhile down the road from Cupertino, at Mountain View, Google followed suit with an annoucement that Eric Schmidt, CEO, was standing down (and he promptly cashed in a few $m of shares the following day) though standing down means these days a promotion to grand inquisitor or some such title.

Larry Page will become the CEO and Sergey Brin will take an even closer interest in design and products. I wonder now whether "googletv" will hit the buffers or be redesigned with YouTube in mind; A YouTubeTV platform of its own, with your own scheduler, would be fun and different.