Where Apple goes next

Now that the furore surrounding the departure of the tech industry's favourite CEO has died down, I thought it would be interesting to look at whats next for Apple.

Apple won't change much in the next 2-4 years. You read it here first folks (and if you didn't then someone is clearly ripping me off). Apple has a roadmap like most other tech firms, seeing a revamp of each core product at least once per year around the same time and (unlike most other tech firms) tends to stick with it quite religiously.

The problem is that even Steve Jobs can't predict the future and when I say Apple won't change much in the next few years, I mean that they will still churn out the Samsung/Foxconn made shiny things that some folks queue outside the store all night for but behind the scenes will likely be a different story.

Jobs had a vision (or several, depending on which bio you're reading) of what he wanted technology to move towards but the success he had came from a high degree of luck, forward thinking and being in the right place at the right time.

I'm in no way downing the man's talent, but merely pointing out that Tim Cook and those alongside him now at the helm of Apple are not Steve Jobs and no amount of luck or forward thinking will guarantee them the success of their predecessor.

I see a fragmented future for Apple, with lots of voices claiming to know "what Steve would have done" because at the end of day, no product left Cupertino without Steve's stamp of approval. Expect more products that compete with each other as much as third parties in the marketplace.

This could complete Apple's slow transformation from the tech world's "Little engine that could" into the lumbering juggernaut of the tech world that Microsoft is today - a confused and fragmented organisation which has lost touch with the industry.

Each passing week sees Apple get more aggresive in litigation, patricularly where Android and Samsung are concerned. Would "the good guys" patent a screen unlock? This reminds me of Bill Gates being determined to crush Netscape at all costs a decade and a half ago.

The question I leave you with is simply whether Apple can still be Apple in the post-Jobs era?