PEAK Apple: Cupertino's hopes died with Steve Jobs, says Larry Ellison
Dead tech titan likened to Edison and Picasso by database billionaire
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Oracle supremo Larry Ellison has told Apple that it doesn't stand a chance of success without Steve Jobs at the helm.
In an interview with CBS, the multibillionaire performed a bizarre dance routine meant to illustrate what chance Apple has in the post-Jobs era. Just like the oracles of old, Ellison's predictions take a bit of interpretation.
The Oracle was asked what he thought of Jobs, to which he replied: "He was brilliant, he was our Edison, he was our Picasso. He was an incredible inventor."
But then came a question about how the fruity firm is likely to fare without their godhead on the throne.
"Well, we already know," Ellison said, before embarking upon a simple piece of interpretive dance to illustrate his thoughts.
"We saw, we conducted the experiment. I mean, it's been done," he continued, referring to Apple's rotten period in the 1990s.
"We saw Apple with Steve Jobs," Ellison purred, drawing the shape of an upwards graph with his finger.
"We saw Apple without Steve Jobs," the Oracle continued, pointing his finger down to the ground like a schoolgirl copying a Beyonce routine.
"We saw Apple with Steve Jobs," he said, once again doing the happy upwards graph motion, before guillotining his finger to the ground one more time and concluding: "Now, we're gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs."
When run through El Reg's translator, this basically means that Ellison thinks Apple ain't got a hope without Jobs, a phenomenon that's already being dubbed Peak Apple. Without a major, disruptive product launch since the iPad in 2010, the pace of innovation certainly seems to be slowing, with just an iWatch on the horizon - a device that is hardly guaranteed success.
A more famous oracle than Ellison used to tell great leaders to "know thyself". Tim Cook, are you listening? ®
