Can Apple make it without the Jerkoff?

In the world of technology, the words "Apple" and "innovation" have become practically synonymous. In one area, however, the maker of personal computers and consumer electronic devices has shown an inability to think different.

And that area is not an insignificant one: It's the composition of its top leadership.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple in Cupertino, Calif., more than three decades ago, has seen his identity grow so intertwined with that of the company that, to many, Jobs is Apple and vice versa. Especially given the company's turbulence during his decade-long absence, Apple faces an extraordinarily difficult task in succession planning.

The company has given few if any signs that it has even begun. Apple wouldn't make Jobs available for this story, and a spokesman said the possibility that Jobs would leave the company in the foreseeable future was remote.

"Jobs casts a long shadow," said Neil Sims, vice president of the technology practice at Boyden, an executive recruitment company. "What he brings to Apple is the encouraging of innovation, and that's a hard thing to replicate in a CEO."

Apple's own history has established Jobs' importance to the company. In the early 1980s, Jobs led the company in its development of the first line of Macintosh computers. The machines helped to revolutionize the industry, pioneering an easy-to-use operating system and the mouse-keyboard interface that is now a given in computer design and use.

In 1983, Jobs himself recruited an outsider - former Pepsi executive John Sculley - to run the business. Two years later, that decision came back to haunt Jobs as the Apple board backed Sculley in the ouster of Jobs from the company.

Apple went through two CEOs over the next 12 years. During this time, the company's Mac line lost considerable market share to Windows-based PC clones. New products such as the portable Newton handheld device also failed to garner broad interest among consumers.

By the time Jobs returned to the company in late 1996, Apple's shares had foundered, closing the year just a little over the $4 mark, on a split-adjusted basis - flat with their level when Jobs left the company.

Apple investors have certainly benefited from Jobs' second coming. He led the company in resurrecting the fortunes of its fabled line of Macintosh computers as well as in the launch of the iPod, which has garnered a majority share of the market for digital music players.

On Oct. 23, 2001, the day Apple unveiled the iPod, Apple's stock closed at a split-adjusted price of $8.41. Shares closed last year around the $85 mark - that is, up 900 percent. The stock has surged close to 50 percent since then, following the introduction of plans for its iPhone, which went on sale June 29.

"Replacing Jobs would be a big risk," said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research who covers Apple's stock.

At 52, Jobs is not exactly nearing retirement age. But a brush with cancer three years ago and a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission over the past 12 months have raised the specter of an Apple without Jobs at the helm - a notion that has proved frightening to investors.

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