“Would you view Apple differently without Steve Jobs running the company?”
21. Januar 2007, veröffentlicht von Alexander
Just a few days before this year’s MWSF Keynote, MacDailyNews reported a rumour suggesting Apple will announce that Steve Jobs will be taking a leave of absence from the company. Considering he shared last year’s WWDC Keynote with three fellow Apple colleagues, such an idea did not seem completely unlikely (see also this discussion on Slashdot).
Personally, I like Apple and Steve Jobs and recognise that at times I can appear to be a bit of an Apple groupie. Hence, I admit that the rumour disturbed me but more importantly, it provided me with the opportunity to add some questions about the future of Steve Jobs to a survey I was preparing at the time.
The Study
The survey - conducted among the German-speaking online-community of Mac-users - consists of two parts. The first part was conducted prior to the Keynote and resulted in 1,007 responses.
Altogether, 48% of participants submitted an e-mail address and were invited to participate in the second part of the study, which started after MWSF07 (Figure 1).
Figure 1. “MacStudies MWSF07: First and second survey”
Since then, 53% of invited participants have already completed the second part of the study. Here I discuss preliminary results from this second part, which are based on 221 responses so far.
“When will Steve Jobs retire from his position as Apple’s CEO?”
The questions were ultimately intended to find out whether participants would view Apple differently without Steve Jobs running the company. In Figure 2, the answers to this question were combined with the suggested year, in which Steve Jobs might retire from his position.
Figure 2. “When will Steve Jobs retire from his position as Apple’s CEO?”
Two years were mentioned most frequently: “2010″ and “2012 or later”. Interestingly, a high percentage of those who indicated that in their view Apple would change without Steve Jobs running the company also chose the year 2012 or later.
“For how long have you been using a Macintosh regularly?”
Another question that participants were asked was the year when they started using a Macintosh regularly (Figure 3).
Figure 3. “For how long have you been using a Macintosh regularly?”
This time quite a high percentage of those who indicated that Apple would change without Steve Jobs running the company, actually became Mac-users in the previous few years.
Final Remarks
Of course, with only slightly above 200 participants, this exercise does not aim to provide a comprehensive view on the thoughts of the Mac-Community at large. However, it is hoped that these thoughts may start a wider discussion within the community.
The majority of questions from this study emphasise the view of participants on the products that they expected for this year’s MWSF Keynote and their personal views on the newly presented products.