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Larry Ellison, long-time friend of Steve Jobs, says ‘we already know’ Apple without Jobs (updated)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUdYebAN-Fs]

Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, longtime close friend of Steve Jobs, and former Apple Director, shared with CBS’s Charlie Rose what he believes post-Jobs Apple will look like. As quoted by AllThingsD:

“Well, we already know,” Ellison told Rose. “We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.”

Ellison’s quote seems to be referring to Apple’s history with Steve Jobs (the time in which the company launched the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, for example) in comparison to Apple’s darker years with leadership from the likes of John Sculley and Gil Amelio.

Now, with Steve Jobs’s hand-picked successor Tim Cook and the rest of the leadership team with Jony Ive, Craig Federighi, and Eddy Cue at the helm, Ellison seems to think that the pattern of dark days under leaders other than Jobs will repeat itself.

Updated with larger embed via CBS news below, which includes his thoughts on Larry Page being evil and the quote above being put into better context:

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Comments

  1. Nicholas Chan - 11 years ago

    No, we already saw Apple with Pepsi CEO. Now we’ll see Apple without Steve and without Pepsi CEO.

  2. The only parallel is the “without Steve Jobs” part. Where the company was then and the fact that they hired somebody from outside of Apple is completely different than where the company was when he died and the fact that Tim was groomed for years to take over. Now it may work out the same (doubtful), but the circumstances are completely different.

  3. Mo Levi (@themacified) - 11 years ago

    He’s comparing the Apple of the 90’s to the Apple of now. Steve knew he was going to die. He handpicked, and crafted all of the top Apple employees to embody his vision of a successful company that thinks about amazing products first, then profits second.

  4. 311sie - 11 years ago

    And this is Larry Ellison doing what he does best, being the Donald Trump of tech.

  5. Here’s Oracle without Larry Ellison / here’s Oracle with Larry Ellison \

  6. mkimid - 11 years ago

    If i have read this article in 2012 ~ I may can ignore easily. But, it is hard to ignore now. Because of Apple’s culture has been changed so much last two years, and unfortunately, it is hard to say they did a good job. Anyway, it is a very difficult to say Yes or No

  7. Pssh. We have a Jony Ive.

  8. Len Williams - 11 years ago

    Terrific! Now even Steve’s “friends” are obliquely predicting that Apple is “doooooomed”. This is twaddle, bs, and unsubstantiated hokum that has been being said all through the time Steve was originally at Apple, then during the time when he was ousted and again when he came back to Apple. Regardless of how well Apple is doing, there are always at least 20 or 30 very outspoken analysts, pundits and people-who-know who are broadcasting how Apple is doomed, seen its best days, can’t innovate, has lost its direction, will never make it, etc., etc. Despite all the naysayers that have constantly dogged Apple, the company is still insanely profitable and makes whole swimming pools of money every day from the sales of its products. Apple pays more in taxes to the U.S. government than 90% of the world’s corporations make in a year.

  9. Aaron (@Avenged110) - 11 years ago

    Apple will continue to be successful but we’ve already seen a change from some of their core ideals. That may not be a bad thing, probably even the opposite, but they’ve already lost a piece of what I loved about Apple which is disappointing.

  10. Lee (@leemahi) - 11 years ago

    The problem is going to be that they are going to make cheaper and uglier products to cater to the masses, rather than making high end products. I think this cheaper iPhone is going to spell doom to the company as a brand.

    • rettun1 - 11 years ago

      They made cheaper iPods that were wildly successful. They made a cheaper iPad that was wildly successful. I don’t see an end to the trend

  11. Lets be extremely honest here. This guy was just a huge fan of Steve and doesn’t believe one can achieve anything without him, which is idiotic. I mean even Shamesung managed to be successful with their crap products (even though Steve said its much harder to sell crap products compared to great products).

    And to all those offensive fandroids paid by samsung to spam Apple news and fan sites with phrases like “Apple is doomed” or “Apple is going downhill without Steve”: go f yourself and mind your own business.

    And to return to the honest part, IF Apple is really going downhill its because they’re losing focus (the laser focussed thing as Tim calls it) on the products that matter to Apple by focussing on midrange products. But its not that the high end product are bad (or Tim Cook failures as some trolls might say). Look at the iPhone 5, I think its really a standout product that brings the iphone in the right direction. Look at the retina MBP, couldn’t possibly be better for its time and has that wow factor. The mac pro, not seen yet, but really looks like a can’t-innovate-anymore-my-ass product. iOS 7, maybe except for some neon colors that some of you may dislike, it’s a very well designed mobile OS, far ahead in focus on content, readability, making great use of a pocket sized display, organizing clusters of information (love the new Share menu), and being more logical in terms of visual functional layers and how it animates between them.

    So, could anyone give me an example of what Steve would have done better (except for the aforementioned midrange products)? Dont tell me the neon colors, Thats the job of the design team and Steve himself granted Jony the final word on the design part of things as an exception, even if the CEO prefers it differently.

  12. Drew (@gettysburg11s) - 11 years ago

    Well, Larry is forgetting some thing here. The American buying public (and maybe also in Western Europe) doesn’t really care who is CEO of Apple, or who runs the marketing dept. Only us tech minded people, and bloggers do. So, its pretty unlikely that a smartphone buying decision will be influenced by who is CEO of Apple.

    That being said, having TIm Cook at the helm will definitely change Apple. Its still unclear if its for the better or worse, but he was personally trained to lead the company by Steve Jobs, so I have to think that it will be for the better. I think this year’s product announcements (the new iPhones, and then later in the fall, the new iPads) will be a big turning point for Apple (either up or down, depending on what is announced).

    Its Apple’s game to lose, that’s for sure.

  13. Tyler Ty - 11 years ago

    Does anyone know the hand pick successors of the other great minds that have pass? Most likely not. That is because few, and I mean few, are on the same level. IMO, most people try to simplify SJ, so that they can understand him, but end up missing the true genius he was.

    If it were so simple to do (everything he has done), why is it that SJ, is at the nexus of so many revolutions regarding music, animation, computing, communications, books, design…etc. It is no fluke that he was always there. Just try to name any other person that can even be tied just one or more of those points. That is a very short list.

    You don’t replace Picasso. It will take another very special person to be able to tie and cross many different ideas together to generate another revolution, such as he did.