Thursday, August 28, 2008 -- 11:48 a.m. -- on my couch

Oh, Bloomberg. You have such a nice iPhone app and then you go and do the ultimate journalistic gaffe -- you posted, however briefly, an obituary for a person that's still alive.

And Steve Jobs' obit, no less.

The guy has been peppered with questions for months about his health. His battle with cancer was publicized in a sometimes heartless way, where every time Steve looked like he lost a few pounds, people were assuming and printing that he was sick.

I chose not to cover that whole saga. I think it's ridiculous to speculate about something like that.

So this thing with Bloomberg ... definitely an accident. All major media outlets keep obit files ready for short updates. That way, if someone does die suddenly, there isn't a giant gap between the event and the first obituaries. So the practice is widely known; whether or not you agree with it is another story. Bloomberg retracted the event with a very generic bulletin -- saying that a story about Apple should have never been published. Journalism 101 ... never repeat the mistake when writing a correction.

But it got me to thinking... what if this news event was real? If I happened to be looking at a Bloomberg terminal and saw this flash across, I would have reacted as though it's real. I would have had no reason to believe otherwise. I'd research it of course and confirm and re-confirm and then make sure, but what would I have said?

In every single industry, you've always got to be thinking about training your successor. You have to instill the things you do into the people you work with to keep your dreams alive should something happen to you or circumstances change where you can no longer fulfill your obligations. It's a terrible thought to keep information to yourself and leave people in a lurch.

In the case of Apple, while Steve is the face and the man we look to for everything, he's hardly the only person that makes Apple Apple. The company wouldn't be the same without him, but the company would go on.

I've read over and over that Eddy Cue, the guy who was given the reigns of Mobile Me after the whole debacle, is very much like Steve in his work ethic. MobileMe has been working better ... I will say that. I'm pleased with the free extensions and the attention to detail. Could there be more? Sure! But if I didn't know that Eddy Cue was behind it, I'd think Steve was. It shows that there's a level of transparency there where the company operates with different drivers.

Of course, Jonathan Ive is a genius. I mean, if that guy ever went to work for another company, well, that would be the one time I'd fear for Apple's lead in the market. Part of making a device functional is the software, but a giant part is the look and user experience. I'd love Jonathan Ive to design anything that I own.

And, Al Gore and Google CEO Eric Schmidt also reside on Apple's board. Gore would make sure no iPhones contribute to global warming -- he'd better start by making the back of the iPhone 3G a little less warm -- and Schmidt, well, he's working on Android, but he's obviously got some pretty good ideas.

What I'm basically saying is this ... Steve Jobs' death would be a giant loss for the world. I look up to him as a businessman and a creator. But if it happened, Apple and the products that we know and love would go on.

We look at the time when Steve wasn't with Apple and how poorly it did until he came back. Sure. But that was a different time. Apple didn't have that iconic status that it has today. Today, an Apple without Steve wouldn't be the same Apple, but it would still bear fruit.

What do you think? First, did you see the obit and freak out? Do you think Apple would be OK post-Steve?

Let me and everyone know in the comments. As we like to say in this business, this story is a real talker.

Thanks for calling.

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Know it's not the focal point here but my MM mail just gets worse- half the time it doesn't push to the phone so I don't even know it's there unless I look for it. Calendar still won't show appts in day/week/month view in Outlook. Still can't physically delete mail from Outlook- have to delete from me.com to have it removed from Outlook. Starting to think this will never be fully compatible for non Mac users. Think it's finally time to get Exchange- only way this is going to work well it seems. Please tell me if your Exchange experience through work provides any problems so that I shouldn't switch. Have had the patience of a Saint but it's going the wrong way and I'm missing messages in a timely fashion now. Thanks.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Exchange has been really good here at work with the iPhone. It seems to work flawlessly.

I agree with you 100% there Scott. I have thought about this before, and thought about when Apple didn't have Steve, but then I pretty much came across the same conclution. If Steve did die, however, I definently would look at Apple as a different company. I doubt the products and the vision would change much (at least for now) but the parsona would be different.

SCOTT's REPLY: Indeed. It wouldn't feel like Apple, but there's no doubt in my mind that someone like Steve Jobs would want the people that he's trained to carry out his vision -- and that passion could go a long way in the products that are created.

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SCOTT's REPLY: Excellent comment. I left your e-mail address here just in case anyone wants to follow up with you about your thoughts.

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