14 DAY TRIAL // A study by Consumer Affairs shows that Apple watchers have complete confidence in the company’s ability to continue to command the market even after Steve Jobs’ resignation announced last month.
A consumer news and advocacy firm founded in 1998, Consumer Affairs acknowledges that Steve Jobs' sudden retirement came as a shock to the stock market.
His stepping down as CEO also “rattled the company's employees and sparked endless thumb-sucking op-eds by columnists of all stripes,” says the firm.
“But if anyone thinks Jobs' retirement is an ill omen for the Apple brand, it may be time to think again.”
As such, Consumer Affairs decided to make a computerized analysis of consumer sentiment only to find that “positive sentiment peaked during August, when Jobs announced that he was stepping aside because of chronic health issues.”
Some 27 million sentiments were recorded over the last year on Facebook, Twitter and other social mediums.
They found that during August, nearly 50% of all analyzed comments were positive.
30 percent were deemed as neutral, and slightly less than 20% were negative.
In real figures, there were 170,000 positives against 64,000 negatives in August when Consumer Affairs was stumbling upon such comments as "Apple will be fine thanks to his leadership" and "Apple is incredibly solid thanks to him."
Indeed, Steve Jobs is believed to have groomed not only Tim Cook to make a fine CEO successor, but also other key executives at Apple.
And that’s not because it was in his job description, but because Jobs was actually good friends with the likes of Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, the company’s chief designer.
“While the positive comments tended to focus on Jobs and his leadership, negative comments mostly revolved around technical and pricing issues,” Consumer Affairs adds.
So, basically, even the nay-sayers trust Apple will continue to make profits even with Steve Jobs no longer at the helm.