Steve Jobs’ Departure Heralds the Dawn of the "Post-PC" Era

In the space of a few days, the information industry has experienced three events which will leave their mark on its history. Google has set its heart on patents and Motorola’s mobile phones; Hewlett-Packard, in contrast, has decided to become a software company by simultaneously acquiring Autonomy and abandoning its PCs and tablets business; and finally, Steve Jobs, the brilliant pioneer of information technology for the masses, has decided to leave his company, Apple. Apple was founded 35 years ago in a garage and today is bursting with money, globally, it is the second largest company in terms of market capitalization.

It’s hard to believe that the autocratic, roguish Steve Jobs could let an illness, formidable as it is, intrude on his schedule. It falls, of course, to him, and not to his rival Bill Gates, to mark the end of this period and the entry into the “post-PC” and even “post-Internet” era. His competitors — and his victims — are now no longer manufacturers, they are developers of software, “apps,” download platforms, search engines, phone companies or service providers. In short, they will be cloud manufacturers, far removed from the attractive hardware of their origins.

Apple is on this path now and will be so for the long term. In this new age, information, i.e. patents, and the capacity to innovate quickly, are two key factors. But the lethal weapon is user control. There is a temptation for these digital giants to confine their clients in a sort of “ecosystem,” in which they control everything, from the physical distribution of material to invoicing, and thus share the market among themselves. This dangerous trend is frequently condemned, with good reason, by those defending free software and the neutrality of the Internet. Apple, with its tradition of secrecy and impenetrability, should listen to these detractors. After its founder’s departure, this presumably is the next revolution we can expect from Apple.