Apple is huge. When a company gets as big as Apple does, you'll always be able to find cracks and missteps. Where I think Apple is failing is filling the gap o

Apple is huge. When a company gets as big as Apple does, you'll always be able to find cracks and missteps. Where I think Apple is failing is filling the gap of Jobs, and I don't mean the man, but the fear. Jobs was notorious for being an asshole and firing whole teams if they didn't deliver to "his standard". Without this fear, I wonder if things will begin to come out that would otherwise never have seen the light of day. IMO, the last few products Apple has released have been much worse than the previous few. Lion was a bad release, Mountain Lion was better, but generally not a great release either. The new Nano with the round icons is, well, horrible looking. Would Jobs have let that go out? Would the team release that if Jobs was still alive and in charge? I'm actually a huge fan of individuals being able to make autonomous decisions. I think that leads to healthier companies and better products. HOWEVER, Apple has never been structured that way and it could take some time before natural leaders step up inside the company. They have the money to weather storms and lets face it, the Apple fans are going to give them many years of free passes so there really isn't a fear of them ending anytime soon.