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Telecom & Wireless

Apple’s (AAPL) Luckiest Day: Jobs’ Three Challenges

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Analysts have said that Apple (AAPL) does not need Steve Jobs. Apple shares are up 60% since he took a break to work on his health with his doctors. Because the form of cancer he has can be particularly deadly, a large number of investors believed that he would never be back. The Apple board would be forced to replace an icon.

But, The Wall Street Journal says Jobs will be returning soon, at just about the time the company will release a new version of the iPhone, one with more multimedia functions. Apple may also release a less expensive version of the handset to bring in consumers who have stayed away because of the device’s high price.

Everything is not OK at Apple. The iPhone faces threats from new versions of the RIM (RIMM) Blackberry, the Palm (PALM) Pre, and new smartphones from global handset leader Nokia (NOK)

There is also plenty of evidence that Mac sales are slowing. It may be that because many corporations use Windows that Mac market penetration is reaching a ceiling. It many be that cheaper PCs including netbooks are taking  market share.

The last and most important challenge to Apple is the that iPod is eight years old. Almost 200 million iPods have been sold and the rate at which sales of the device are rising has slowed significantly.

Apple needs Jobs because he is the world’s most formidable genius at creating and marketing consumer electronics, and Apple needs some new winners.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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