Apple Could Suffer PC's Revenge

Apple (AAPL Quote) had a great decade, but its success has hinged as much on the downfall of the PC as it has on heralded CEO Steve Jobs.

A look at the stock performance of Apple and its PC rivals Dell (DELL Quote) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ Quote) underscores the revived Mac maker's dramatic success story and the triumphant return of its co-founder. It also raises unavoidable concerns about how Apple will perform when Jobs inevitably leaves.

But perhaps a bigger concern is how will Apple fare if the PC industry ever catches its stride. Lost in the debate about Jobs' health is how Apple will perform during the inevitable recovery of PC makers and the invasion of netbook upstarts like Asus and Acer.

Persistent rumors that Jobs' cancer has returned, compounded by Apple's unwillingness to address the issue or offer a possible succession plan, have dogged the stock since June.

Apple's Jobs Era A Midas Touch with a Big PC Fumble Marketwatch.com

Rarely has a CEO been so intertwined with the fortunes of a company, and it is nearly impossible to determine where Jobs' influence stops and other factors take hold. To be sure, Jobs has shown a deft hand at timing key product introductions and has engendered a loyal following among gadget fans. But Apple shined at a time when the PC industry was losing its luster.

In other words, Jobs' Midas touch got a big assist from the unraveling of Apple's competitors.

It hasn't been a banner decade for PCs. Mysteriously, the average PC's performance didn't necessarily improve as processing power increased every year. Among the reasons for sluggish startups and responses was that PC makers, capitalizing on an internal real estate boom, took payments to preload so-called bloatware like trial software and an assortment of system management programs that bogged down the machines. An added treat was the ever-present malware -- invasive programs like viruses, adware and spyware that PCs, by virtue of their numbers, are more exposed to than Apple.