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Comment by iamclovin | Hacker News Reader

I have to say I'm kinda surprised that no one has mentioned Jony Ive as a potential successor. Successive keynotes have given me the impression that Jobs trusts Ive and Ive seems to have a similar obsession for making beautiful things. I even remember Jobs referring to Ive as one his best friends.

Jony Ive and Tim Cook in my mind will form a very potent team.

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Ive's Apple's best designer. His talent would be wasted at the CEO position.

I think you're right on. Ive and Jobs share a similar background (in design, if you consider the calligraphy story) and Ive's personality has been really ingrained in the latest Apple creations. Besides, Apple has already all the structure in place to handle a CEO with less business/operations experience and more focused on products. If Eric isn't coming to Apple (and to me, he is more needed at Microsoft anyway), Ive would make a great CEO.

Design =/= Product. I doubt Ive had the foresight Jobs had when he foresaw the PC as the hub and had the guts to admit MS won the war and not chase after a losing battle. Not only that, Ive had never proven to lead. AAPL will tank if he's made the successor instead of Cook or someone else who's more proven.

It's a real disservice to Ive's career to equate it with someone sitting in on a calligraphy class.

Steve did much more than just sitting on a calligraphy class, from the moulded plastic design used in the Apple II through to significant inputs in the original Macintosh. All that happened much before Ive was at Apple, though I agree that Steve does not have the same formal background in design as Ive.

>If Eric isn't coming to Apple

People keep saying this, but Eric isn't remotely as talented as Jobs. I can't imagine they've given a seconds consideration as having him in the top spot.

Not sure about Cook's ambitions. If he's been eying for the CEO title and he's not made the successor, he can be easily lured away. Ive on the other hand, I would imagine he's happy where he is now. Ive designed devices are probably getting close to a 1/4 to a billion units sold. I'm not sure if he can have that kind of influence anywhere else, nor his desire to be a CEO. Jobs has to know these points. So unless Ive is more ambitious than Cook, making Ive the CEO won't be playing the cards right.

Apple is not a hardware company, it's a software company that happens to make software

Isn't Woz still on the Payroll? He is the only one remotely close to being as iconic as Jobs. I would love to see Apple go more in the hacker-friendly direction that Woz would take it in.

I can so see it coming out of leftfield like that too, boom, meet the new CEO, Woz!

Fingers crossed.

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