Former Apple Chief John Sculley Backs Company’s Current Management

By: Zain Nabi  |   March 18th, 2013   |   Apple, News

While Apple has been criticised for compromising its innovative approach after the departure of its co-founder Steve Jobs, the company’s current management has received backing from its former CEO John Sculley, who served in the capacity between 1983 and 1993.

 

Sculley is of the view that there is no dearth of talent in Apple’s current management and while he acknowledged that the innovative approach had been compromised, he attributed it to the changing industry trends instead of putting the blame on the people running the company. Speaking to Huffington Post, he said:

 

“I don’t think that it’s because Apple has lost its ability to innovate. My guess is that it has nothing to do with Apple at all, but with the current stage of technology. Moore’s law has been completely predictable for 40 years. You really need about a generation between each of [the] big innovations and the big innovation we’re going through now is all about cloud computing. You can only surf the big wave when there are big waves, and there are moments when technology is poised for innovators to come in and do something spectacular, and then there are other moments when you just have to play out an opportunity and wait for next big wave to come along.”

 

Apple has always focused on high-end products and consumers, which has made the brand less popular and less approachable in many developing markets that carry huge potential. Other companies, especially Samsung, have taken advantage of these markets by introducing cost-effective smartphones. Together Samsung and Apple dominate the smartphone market and keep on battling for the top position in the industry. Sculley thinks that Apple should also focus on low-end consumers to gain more market penetration. He said:

 

“Steve left behind a great vision for Apple, a great culture and an extraordinarily talented executive team, so this is not a company in trouble, and I think Apple is getting unfairly beaten up. Apple is now being challenged by the combination of Samsung and Google. I have the iPhone and iPad and Galaxy Note. Apple makes really good products, and Samsung makes really good products. It’s really a two-horse race. Where I think Apple is exposed: the price points of Apple’s products are just so high by comparison with Samsung’s. My sense is that there’s a big opportunity that Apple is either going to miss if it doesn’t bring out lower-priced products for emerging markets, or that it can end up getting and becoming huge success story if does.”

 

Jobs’ successor Tim Cook also shares the same vision and he has been reportedly focusing more on increasing Apple’s market penetration so as to increase revenue and consumer base.

Photo: USA Today