14 DAY TRIAL // Distinguished Apple board member Art Levinson confessed to reporters that he misses Steve Jobs’ presence at meetings, 16 months after the CEO and co-founder passed away at the hand of pancreatic cancer. He said it feels “weird” without him.
“I'm still not to the point where I walk into that boardroom and don't miss Steve,” said Levinson. “He was a one of a kind guy ... The Steve Jobs that was in the public eye was not, for the most part, the Steve Jobs that I knew.”
Levinson touched on numerous aspects regarding Apple in his interview with Fortune. Money was obviously a topic.
Apple recently posted the most profitable quarter in the history of any company on Earth, yet investors were disappointed and Apple’s shares are taking tumble after tumble on even the most feeble rumors that the company is beginning to shake.
Levinson told Fortune that a company's short-term earnings mean very little.
“There [are] long-term signs of how a company is doing and whether or not Apple sells 47 or 48 million iPhones -- let somebody else worry about that,” he said.
Asked about the board’s influence on the products, Levinson said, “The board is not there to define product specs. It's there as a sounding board. It's there as a resource. And ultimately, the board is there to hire and fire the CEO.”
However, the board is privileged enough to get a glimpse of Apple’s next big thing between 6 to 18 months prior to launch, said Levinson.
“If presented early enough, some board insights are taken into account, and those on the board with expertise in certain product areas may have more influence,” the board member told reporters, according to the finance publication.
In other words, Levinson and his fellow directors may have already seen the iWatch.