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Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products

By | October 10, 2011, 5:38am PDT

Summary: According to reports, Steve Jobs laid out plans to enable the popular iOS, iPod and MacBook products to continue “for years”.

Reports suggest sources close to Apple have spoken of Steve Jobs’ plans to leave the company he founded in good hands, by preparing blueprints of updates to the popular iPod, iOS devices and MacBook line of products “for years” after his death.

Speaking to a British newspaper, sources said Steve Jobs worked on the future of the products he helped design and shape in a bid to safeguard the future of his company.


(Source: Andrew Burton/Getty Images/AFP)

Jobs was also overseeing work on iCloud, in order to future-proof the company against cloud computing competitors, and to enable the company to put into play more advanced technologies which center around the cloud and online experience.

His involvement may be remembered for some, citing those close to him who worked on the failed MobileMe project, who once quoted Jobs’ scathing put-down to employees; fair to say one of his not-so finest hours.

One research group spoke to the Boston Herald, explaining how others should “not be surprised” by Jobs’ plans, along with Apple’s ‘think ahead’ strategy. Noting that the iPad’s design was registered in 2004 but not introduced to the market until six years later in 2010, it shows Apple’s ability to think far ahead into the future, rather than “only a quarter or two in advance”.

Along the way, his appearance only two months to Cupertino City Council before his resignation in August, stepping down as chief executive as a result of declining health, to set in motion the approval for plans for the next Apple campus.

Dubbed Apple Campus 2, or the ‘Cupertino Spaceship’, it will hold 12,000 employees in a grand park setting near the existing buildings on One Infinite Loop, and will cover 3.1 million square feet of space to house the donut-shaped building.

Only the day before Jobs died, Tim Cook, Apple’s new chief executive, announced the company’s fifth generation smartphone, the iPhone 4S.

Despite looking identical to the existing iPhone 4, and receiving poor outlooks from analysts who called the announcement “disappointing”, sales have soared through the roof, pushing back expected shipping dates to one to two weeks.

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Topics

Job, Steve Jobs, Product, Apple Inc., Vertical Industries, Healthcare, Recruitment & Staffing, Benefits And Compensation, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, a criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked briefly with Microsoft UK in 2006 but no longer have any connection with the company. Regardless, I remain impartial and unbiased in my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and U.S. organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I was involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, undertaking voluntary, non-salaried, elected positions between early 2009 and mid-2010.

No other company, body, government department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

As a freelance journalist, whenever expenses are given and taken by a company that is not CBS Interactive, these will be disclosed in each relevant post to ensure transparency.

I currently work with a UK law enforcement unit, but this is an entirely separate position which bears no connection to other work.

(Updated: 23rd October 2011)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, UK, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

After studying criminology at university, though still in his early-20's, he has already had a series unconventional work and voluntary positions. He has worked with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (which he suffers from), has given lectures on the nature of disabilities in the public community, and occasionally ends up speaking on television and radio discussing the events of the day.

He first had academic work published at the age of 22, then still an undergraduate, and has been cited by a wide range of publications: from CNN, the Huffington Post, AllThingsDigital, The Atlantic Wire and CBS News.

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Crystal Balls...
TampaBri 13th Mar
I sense a lot of "SATURDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING" (what MIGHT happen). Everybody has an 'opinion' - some positive, some negative. Sorry guys - you'll have to wait it out to find out if Steve DID or DID NOT foretell the future of what I'll call "ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) for the next 'n' years or so...

Opinion are like butt-holes - everybody has one. Me? I'll just giggle and wait. I'm sure we will ALL be impressed - by "whatever'.
View in thread
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
dsf3g 10th Oct
This could be a both a blessing and a curse. It could be a blessing to the extent that consumers continue to view new Apple devices and developments as the continued evolution of beloved Steve Jobs' vision, and not a new breed of products representing the vision of the anonymous guys in suits and labcoats who took the reins of Apple after the beloved icon died. OTOH, if Jobs really did lay down a 6 year plan, one wonders to what extent Aplpe managment will feel bound and constrained by a vision that represents the future as viewed from late 2011 and does not account for the unknown developments that follow. Imagine, for instance, a tech company whose vision was set in 2005, before the iPad had come to market, and didn't change at all in response.
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A very good point
William Farrell 10th Oct
@dsf3g
you make an excelent point.

Though this could also be just a story to keep the investors happy.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
Skippy99 10th Oct
@William Farrell I think you can remove the "could" from your post. This is damage control for those who equate Steve Jobs as being Apple.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
Rick_Kl 10th Oct
@dsf3g Being that Steve was always ahead of the industry, I am suer he has set in motion a flexible roadmap. Including what if scenarios, but we will never honestly know. Honestly the Macbook Air was ahead of its time. years later the Ultrabooks are just now starting to show up.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
UrNotPayingAttention 10th Oct
@Rick_Kl

LOL... Some apple fans really need a dose of reality.

"Honestly the Macbook Air was ahead of its time. years later the Ultrabooks are just now starting to show up."

I guess that's excluding the Mitsubishi Pedion, released in 1997, which was and still is thinner than the MBA?

I'm curious if SJ left "what ifs" for the impending DOJ, et al. anti-trust, monopolistic barrage that is forthcoming?
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
comp_indiana 10th Oct
@chmod 777

You should just RM yourself instead. Mitsubishi what? LOL, you going to run Windoze or Unix on that? Either way, you can keep it.

Computer is only as good as it's software. This is why all the smart people get Macs, and stay with them. This has not changed and will not change.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
UrNotPayingAttention Updated - 10th Oct
@comp_indiana

Well, first, it is the Mitsubishi Pedion, developed with HP. It regained some of it's notoriety back when the MBA was released and touted as "worlds thinnest" whatever (which it is not)

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/01/mitsubishi-pedi/

I know this goes against your cultists beliefs, but technology has and continues to exist long before Apple releases a product geared towards it. Smartphones? yep. Tablets? yep. mp3 players? yep. Ultrabooks? hmm mmm.

Now, as far as "This is why all the smart people get Macs, and stay with them."

So, only 6% of the world's computer users are smart? Is that what you're suggesting? Or are you just making the same stupid statements that you couldn't possibly begin to back up like so many little Apple fanbois before you?

Oh, and in regards to "Computer is only as good as it's software."

You better hope not... as iOS and OS X become closer and closer to being merged, and the apps have to be increasingly watered down (as we've already seen with FCP)... that doesn't bode well for Macs and all of the "smart" people using them.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
VRSpock 10th Oct
@chmod 777
"So, only 6% of the world's computer users are smart? Is that what you're suggesting? Or are you just making the same stupid statements that you couldn't possibly begin to back up like so many little Apple fanbois before you?"

He is referring to all those people who think that dragging and dropping in iWeb is the same as HTML programming. God forbid you actually do any SEO in iWeb.
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Wow. So all those scientists, astronomers, doctors I see using PC's
William Farrell 11th Oct
@comp_indiana

are in truth, stupid? Sadly, comp_indiana, you just gave us all a great laugh here - here you bought a Mac because you believe people will look at you and think your smart!

So what you just said about yourself...

LOL! You get the picture! LOL!
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
partman1969@... Updated - 10th Oct
@dsf3g
Which is it anyway? At points you wish to discredit Steve Jobs for just being a salesman with no creative innovating ideas, and at others you make Steve's ideas the epitome of his own, stagnating Apple for all the creative abilities it would have without him. Either way it just makes the zealous Apple hater as apparently ignorant as he (or she) really is. I appreciate all technologies and appreciate all people involved with its creation from software engineering to marketing. Steve and Bill are the icons of Apple and Windows respectively but they as well as thousands of other people are responsible for bringing great products to market.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
comp_indiana 10th Oct
@partman1969@...

Don't feed the trolls. Haters gotta hate. It's what they do.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
dsf3g 11th Oct
@partman1969@...

Wow, how did you get all that from my comment? I have no idea.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
tangle70 11th Oct
@partman1969@...
I think what he meant in ways he was way ahead and others he lagged behind. Like the computer market share. At one time he had a chance to rule the computing world, but his lack of whatever always held that back.
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So you're a hater comp_indiana?
William Farrell 11th Oct
@partman1969@...

or just a troll?
happy
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
tonymcs@... 10th Oct
@dsf3g

No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Good luck with a 6 year plan wink
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
mmcleant 10th Oct
Not to nitpick, but ..."his appearance only two months to Cupertino City Council before his resignation" should read "his appearance before the Cupertino City Council only two months before his resignation..."
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re:
iwdy23 6th Nov
When you find the girl wear the kind of ugg kids bailey button stand there and look at you for a while,tell us the detail.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
kksdiei 10th Oct
http://mcaf.ee/y5b3c
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 10th Oct
Sounds good in theory but the digital landscape is always changing. Some new innovative company could bring out a service and then Apple would have to change their plans.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
comp_indiana 10th Oct
@LoverockDavidson_

LOL, 'innovative company'. Like who, exactly? Your beloved (and hopelessly beFUDdled) Microsoft? That's a good one!
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
LoverockDavidson_-24231404894599612871915491754222 10th Oct
@comp_indiana
Did I say Microsoft? And when was Microsoft considered new? Reading isn't your strong point.
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So comp_indiana, what banned user did you used to be?
William Farrell 11th Oct
@comp_indiana

Fool.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
asaverio@... 10th Oct
6 months in IT is a life. Any forecast or "future plans" made now will be dead till the end of 2012. And the so called "visionary" Steve Jobs will not be here to "copy" and "improve" any idea from Xerox, Compaq, IBM, Wozniak...
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take a day off
oneleft 10th Oct
@asaverio@... or tell us who you follow. who's your vote for "visionary"? surely no one at ms because, you know, copy is in their dna. so tell us instead of just bashing the man.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
partman1969@... Updated - 10th Oct
@asaverio@...
None of your list included OSX, the iPod, iPhone, or iPad for their original inventions or patents and Windows for its software and very little hardware would be just as (if not more) guilty of all your charges. I'm aware many individuals are pioneers of technologies used today. I truly wish all could be given their credits as much as I'm sure many of them would rather not if they were used as examples for discrediting others. Give the complaining a break already! Oh and might I ask how Next was desired and bought by Apple, and that Pixar and now Disney Animation and of course any investor of Apple are now so successful were it not for SOME ideas and business decisions made by Steve Jobs. Give some credit where it's due as I too appreciate and give credit to all those in your pioneering list.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
prewarguy 10th Oct
@asaverio@... How much money did Xerox make from the GUI or the mouse? The only made the license fee that Jobs gladly paid them. PARC was a wonderful place but Jobs was the only one who could turn their work into products because their executives had no clue. Woz tried very hard to get HP to build the PCs but their executives had no vision and passed so yes Jobs was a visionary QED
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
comp_indiana 10th Oct
@asaverio@...

OK, I can see what you mean by Xerox and Wozniak, sure. But Compaq and IBM???? I think you are really grasping at staws. BTW, Xerox and Compaq were total failures at computing.

Xerox didn't 'invent' the GUI. They failed at it. No oeverlapping windows, and the management gave up. They had some good engineers, but so what?

Windows is a direct copy of Apple, not Xerox! MSFT, in all their hubris, didn't even change the KEYSTROKES! Just like they named even their recent copycat (naturally) UI after Apple's. I guess they thought it would be funny. What was funny though, was the total faceplant that resulted when Visa (and 'Luna') debuted. It's no Aqua.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
illwill112 27th Oct
@asaverio@...
Ohh Look another drive by troll. Man you guys are a dime a dozen. Come here make one ignorant post and dont ever come back.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
paul613 10th Oct
Future plans...Those are the best kind.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
comp_indiana 10th Oct
@paul613

LOL!!!
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
jscott69 10th Oct
@paul613 Yeh, but it's waaayyyyy easier to plan for the things that have already happened!
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'British newspaper' is just a tabloid, though the essense is, of course, ..
DeRSSS 10th Oct
.. true.

It is obvious that Jobs always thought years ahead, no matter whether he was going to die or not.

Some of his unexpected-to-public concepts may be realized in the future year, not only in the nearest year-or-two where products will still have his direct inventor input.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
DAS01 10th Oct
... was apparently still doing that on this deathbed (giving instructions to staff).
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
asaverio@... 10th Oct
I believe Apple now will contract a Medium to keep in contact with Steve and make the new world true...
Are you kidding? Steve ideas are years ahead? What? iPhone? iPad? iTouch? Appletalk? Motorola and PowerPC processors? SCSI interface? What? What Apple fanatics can (or can??t) see that normal people can??t (or can)? In bakery, the bread seller is not the baker. Steve Jobs was just a seller. A good one, but just that. Ideas? Wozniak and others had that. Not Steve Jobs.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
benched42 Updated - 10th Oct
Dual post
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
benched42 10th Oct
You're kidding with this, right? After all, Jobs was no engineer. I'm not saying he wasn't a visionary, and I'm not saying he wasn't great at marketing. But "preparing blueprints of updates to the popular iPod, iOS devices and MacBook line of products" takes some engineering expertise. And his engineering contribution to the original Apple computer? "Beige, make the case plastic and beige." If you critically look at the history of Apple, you'll find he had specific cosmetic designs in mind but didn't know much about the actual engineering behind the designs.

Woz was the engineer, Jobs the marketer. That didn't change over the years.
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Beware the Monkey
Robert Hahn 10th Oct
With apologies to Isaac Asimov, I hope Jobs also started a Second Foundation. The world does not always evolve according to plan.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
trm1945 10th Oct
I'm curious. According to the posts made here, Steve Jobs took Apple from the brink of disaster to the largest company status but did so without any skills. If it's so damn easy to do, why is America in a recession?
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
jscott69 10th Oct
@trm1945 excellent observation!
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
benched42 10th Oct
@trm1945

He also took them to that brink of disaster in his first stint with Apple when the American economy was going through the roof. His skills are in marketing. A good marketer can create markets where none exist, which is what he did.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
prewarguy 10th Oct
I notice most of the people making comments here still don't get it. Jobs would leave a path to future Apple products which would be largely independent from the technology. Eg if this were 8 years ago he would have said we need a tablet here are the characteristics and requirements. Here is a minimum set of specs and don't release the product until we can meet these specs. For instance it better have far superior battery life than anyone else can achieve. And yes for only four years in the future he could probably forecast where much of the technology will be. Nobody is going to invent a totally new battery and get it into mass production in less than 4 years. To do that it has to be in someones lab now.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
benched42 10th Oct
@prewarguy

So what, he said "Make it small, make it silver, keep the Apple logo white, make the tablet 9.7" screen and 4:3 ratio instead of the HD 16:9 ratio". Jeez. I'll say it again. Jobs was a marketer. That is what he did. He didn't do electronic design or engineering.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
Chet Kincaid 10th Oct
The story you are quoting is idiotic. Steve Jobs probably never drew up a blueprint in his life. His function was to be a ruthless editor of other people's ideas. Furthermore, Jobs has been showcasing Apple's business leads at keynotes for at least 3 years now; could naive pundits maybe take the hint?
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A list of future projects isn't a bad idea...
GrizzledGeezer 10th Oct
...but what Apple needs is someone who can respond to changing technology and markets, not just work through a laundry list of projects.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
eLearner 11th Oct
Riiiiiiiight.

Did he write all this down in something called "the Bible v2", and will he one day return to lead us all to the apple store in the sky....sorry...cloud?
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
JMangotweets 11th Oct
Whether or not he left plans is water under the bridge in my opinion. Mobile is a fast developing industry, where new innovations come at a blinding pace. His plans can serve as a guide, but Apple has to remain agile and flexible in order to stay relevant in this industry.
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RE: Jobs left future plans for next-generation Apple products
Jimster480 11th Oct
Yes but how much of a roadmap could he have set? The matter of the fact is that setting a design is very different from where technology might be at a given period of time. So while Steve might have had an idea for a tablet in 04, if he wasn't around in 2010, I doubt the iPad would have came to fruition.
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Crystal Balls...
TampaBri 13th Mar
I sense a lot of "SATURDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING" (what MIGHT happen). Everybody has an 'opinion' - some positive, some negative. Sorry guys - you'll have to wait it out to find out if Steve DID or DID NOT foretell the future of what I'll call "ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) for the next 'n' years or so...

Opinion are like butt-holes - everybody has one. Me? I'll just giggle and wait. I'm sure we will ALL be impressed - by "whatever'.

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