I think about this too sometimes. I hope some things stay the same, but I hope other things change.
Whether these are direct results of Steve's presence, I don't know.
But yes, at 51 he's not going anywhere anytime soon (knock on wood). Easily another decade or so, if he wanted to.
And even beyond that, if he didn't want to do the day-to-day tough stuff, he'd probably be around as the vision/direction guy, with his fingers still in all the pies to some degree, still giving the MWSF and WWDC keynotes (charisma goes a long way), still the go-to guy for a thoughtful or juicy comment on the state of computers and such, still the public face of the company, etc.
But yes, one day there will be an Apple with no Steve Jobs around. But I think they've done a good job these past few years (and have hopefully learned from their several missteps in the past) and I think the company is on solid ground. More so than a lot of others who get more press and attention, that's for sure.
I don't worry about Apple...they need to be around if only so the
other ones know what to do next. Think about it, and tell me I'm wrong...
