Steve Jobs clearly 'Apple' of Indian eyes

Apple iPhones have slightly over one per cent marketshare in India and only a few thousand iPads have been sold in the country, despite the global hype around the products.

Yet, Steve Jobs is almost a household name in urban India.

And, never has a global CEO's exit elicited such a response here. Cyberspace was awash with tweets praising Jobs and pondering Apple's future, here as elsewhere.

By evening, a little over 9,000 tweets (the 140-character messages on Twitter) per minute were being shared on Jobs, second only to the 10,000 tweets per minute containing the term #TeamAnna, according to Twirus data.

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Vineet Nayyar, CEO of HCL Technologies, tweeted: "Wishing one of my favourite business icons the very best."

"Author and blogger Robin Sharma tweeted, "Thanks for the inspiration, Steve Jobs, and for modelling mastery. You've made your 'dent in the Universe'."

Sahil Parikh, founder of DeskAway, credited Jobs as "the person who taught me the importance of design."

Another Apple fan, Govinda Kakulapati, acknowledged Job's role in his tweet as, "My taste in music evolved over time just because of the Apple iPod. I am truly grateful to Steve Jobs."

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Plus, speculation on Apple's future. Tech blogger Utkarsh Ranjan wrote: "The challenge for Apple would be to design, say, the Apple iPhone6 or the iPad5 without Steve Jobs as CEO."

Apple users and fans in India say they continue to have faith in the company.

New Delhi-based Gagandeep Singh Sapra of System 3 Group, who swears by Apple products and has deployed Apple Macs and iPads for his office staff, feels, "As an Apple User, I don't think innovation will be impacted. Jobs must have brought in an immense vision, but Tim Cook is a great choice.

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"He was hand-picked by Jobs, and has been with the company as a chief operating officer and since he was directly involved in the Macintosh division, I think he will continue to steer in the right direction."

Mohit Sureka, chief executive officer of Spiel, a global mobile game studio, concurs: "The resignation will impact fans emotionally, but in the longer run, I don't think it will affect the brand or its products."

While saying Cook would continue the drive to keep Apple ahead of competitors, he adds: "As an entrepreneur and founder myself, I can assure you, no one else can match the same passion for their business."

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Says Salil Bhargava, CEO at Jump Games: "Apple, to an extent, was synonymous with Jobs, especially for a lot of hard-core Apple fan boys.

It will definitely dilute the brand to some extent." He credits Jobs with revolutionising mobile consumer applications and its devices, to have transformed the world of mobile gaming.

"Personally, my love for Apple products probably will come down a notch or two," he admits.

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Analysts approached the subject with circumspection. Michael Gartenberg, research director at Gartner, says: "While this marks the end of an era, there's more to Apple than any one person, even Jobs. Continuing as chairman, he will continue to leave his mark on both the company and products."

Jan Dawson, chief telecoms analyst at Ovum, also believes 'the resignation will not have an immediate impact.

The short-term selloff (five per cent drop) of shares immediately after the announcement is driven by fears that Apple will not continue to perform as it has once Steve Jobs leaves the CEO role.

'However, these fears appear relatively unfounded, at least in the short term.'