So How Much Will Change at Apple?

Steve Jobs revolutionized Apple in his second go-round with the company, taking the stock from a split-adjusted $6.05 per share in 1996 to $376 today. But with Jobs resigning as CEO, everyone is wondering what the future holds for Apple. Some reactions:

• What will change? Not much, write Nathan Olivarez-Giles and Thomas Suh Lauder for the LA Times. In his role as CEO, Jobs had to answer to two groups: shareholders, and the board of directors. Now he's at the helm of that board.

• It was the perfect time to go, writes Brian Barrett for Gizmodo, noting that the coming release of the iPhone 5 and more affordable iPhone 4 should buoy the company and give CEO Tim Cook a chance to step into the spotlight. "If they'd waited any longer, the iPhone 5 announcement would've been fully shrouded in memories of Jobs. ... This feels calculated, in the best possible way, to happen at the best possible time. Now."
• Apple has lost its core, writes Rupert Goodwins for ZDNet, and only time will tell how this plays out. The iPhone and iPad can only be updated so many times, and with Jobs "there was always a 'next.'" But "Apple as innovator without Jobs is Apple unknown." Its future "depends on the new next, and the longer we have to wait to see what happens, the less likely it will happen at all."

(More Apple stories.)