The tech industry has been taken by storm not once, not twice, but three times in the last 10 days. I am going to start with the most recent news of Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO of Apple. The news broke about two hours ago, only a matter of weeks before the iPhone 4s/iPhone 5 launch. There is only one logical reason for this move, his health. There is no other logical reason he would be stepping aside and handing over the company he built not once but twice to Tim Cook the former Vice President of Corporate Materials at Compaq and Apple COO.
You might be asking yourself why I mention Tim Cook’s time with Compaq.There are a couple of reasons. First and foremost, as I understand it, in his short time at Compaq he oversaw their manufacturing plants. That is a key factor in Apple’s recent success and will be key to their continued success. The second reason I mentioned Compaq is because back in 2002 only about four years after Cook left them for Apple, Compaq sold to HP and late last week HP announced that it is getting out of the consumer hardware business naming, if you read between the lines of their Press Release, Apple as one of the core reasons they are no longer able to be a player in the consumer market.
Last week when HP made that announcement the headline of the announcement was that they would be killing off their WebOS hardware lines including the TouchPad. This only about 18 months after buying Palm Computing the pioneers WebOS. To that end, back in April 2010 when Palm was getting ready to sell to HP they cited some of the same reasons for the sale having to take place. The sad thing here is that WebOS gives HP a huge chance to do a lot of the same stuff Apple is doing in terms having control of everything from hardware design all the way down to the software that the hardware runs. Oh well, that potential has been thrown out the window for now, we will have to see who buys the WebOS business off of HP now that they want no part in consumer hardware. That is of course if HP even sells the rights, they could choose to open source or license it.
Finally, last Monday morning news broke that Google is going to by out Motorola Mobility. The reasons for this are fairly clear. There are two reasons for the buy out. First and foremost, if you read between the lines, they did this to help in all of the patent suits they and their partners are dealing with from Apple. They also made this move privatize Android and slow down the hardware innovation coming from Android vendors. Do not be surprised if this move leads to the demise of Android.
On a side note, as I was writing this post I noticed something. Once again Apple has controlled the news cycle leading up to a major product launch. Albeit an indirect involvement in the HP and Google/Motorola stories Apple is still involved.
Thats all for now.