“When will Steve Jobs retire from his position as Apple’s CEO?” (MacStudies 2007)
The above questions were ultimately intended to find out whether participants would view Apple differently without Steve Jobs running the company. In Figures 1 and 2, the answers to this question were combined with the suggested year, in which Steve Jobs might retire from his position.
Resuls from North-American users
Figure 1 shows the results from 196 participants from Canada and the U.S. Two years were mentioned most frequently: “2010″ and “2012 or later”. The number of participants who have indicated that Apple would change without Steve Jobs running the company, was quite high.
Figure 1. “When will Steve Jobs retire from his position as Apple’s CEO?” (part 1)
Resuls from German-speaking users
Compare this to the results from 204 German-speaking participants (Figure 2). Again, “2010″ and “2012 or later” were mentioned most frequently but this time, the relative number of those who have indicated that their view on Apple would change without Steve Jobs running the company, is considerable smaller.
Figure 2. “When will Steve Jobs retire from his position as Apple’s CEO?” (part 2)
Implications
Because the survey is still running, it is a bit early to draw conclusions from these preliminary results. However, it is save to say that Steve Jobs is of considerable importance to Apple. Well, that is not really surprising, isn’t it ?!?
What is surprising, however, is the fact that North-American users seem more influenced by the person Steve Jobs in their views on Apple, while German-speaking users seem to rely less on him in their view on Apple. This is particularly surprising as Apple always had a much stronger position in North America than it ever had in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.
One explanation could be the fact that in these countries, Apple was historically perceived as a supplier to creative professionals, not as a company being attractive to consumers. As a result, “die hard Apple fans” in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland might still connect more to the products rather than the company itself.
