Yesterday Steve Jobs (photo ©Matt Yohe) resigned from his position as CEO of Apple. For several years Jobs has had serious health problems beginning with a pancreatic cancer so it’s clear that his situation got worse. He promised that he’d resign when he could no longer meet his duties and he did it.

Now Tim Cook has taken over as CEO. Steve Jobs will remain as part of Apple’s board of directors and as the director of personnel, but what’s going to happen to the company he co-founded in 1976?

Steve Jobs’ resignation was a surprise but it’s clear that this moment had been prepared so that the transition within Apple would be as painless as possible. Inevitably in the stock market Apple shares went down some points but these days it seems that any excuse is good to sell. Apple remains a solid company and a rapid recovery in the stock market wouldn’t be surprising.

Surely Steve Jobs had already planned the next products releases and in general Apple’s development for the near future so it’s not a problem, instead we must see what’s going to happen in the coming years.

Apple’s success is due to Steve Jobs’ innovative ideas but also to his charisma. He has a public image at the level of an actor or a pop star so when he introduces a new product he can make people talk about it like no other in the IT field. Today many people buy Apple products which are certainly not cheap because they’re trendy, beyond their quality.

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The added value brought by Steve Jobs’ public image will still last if he will be able to to introduce the upcoming Apple products, otherwise it will slowly run off. Linking Apple’s economic success to Steve Jobs’ state of health is cynical but in the market fights noone spares dirty tricks.

We all think about Steve Jobs’ beautiful speeches but Apple is one of the main protagonists of the patent war that lately is giving a lot to do to courts around the world. Despite Jobs’ charisma many people have already started thinking of Apple as a “patent troll”, a company that tries to sabotage its competition and get money from them using patents.

If Steve Jobs won’t be able to be the face of Apple the company could gradually lose its reputation as a bringer of innovation. Tim Cook is certainly a capable person, otherwise he woundn’t have been supported by Steve Jobs to become his successor. We’ll have to see if in the coming years he’ll keep on being ahead of everyone and even more if he’ll inspire potential customers.