Apple under CEO Angela Ahrendts? Hmm ... (beard stroke)

Cupertino without a new Jobs is the skinny latte of computing

Never mind the Benioffs

Given the size of Apple’s sales and the pile of money it makes, BGC Partners’ analyst Colin Gillis sums it up: "The market is hard to satisfy, especially when it comes to Apple. The company has been trying to give realistic guidance and this is a bit better than that, and that's not enough for some people."

But there is a problem.

The moaning and worries over growth belie a bigger concern for Apple: “what’s next?” It’s a problem Apple’s had ever since Steve Jobs died two years ago.

Under Cook we’ve had more of everything that Jobs did: more tablets and phones, just difference versions. There’s a possible iWatch blowing in the wind, too. But really, where’s the kind of paradigm shift Apple’s famous for – which famously had bigger companies like Microsoft at first ignoring it and then scrambling to copy?

There have been cock-ups: notably Apple Maps a year ago. There’s also signs of weakness – the cheapo iPhone 5C is supposedly not selling particularly well against cheap Androids.

But there's been nothing really new, and it feels as if Apple hasn’t moved on since Jobs’ passing. And that’s why the market is Apple’s to lose in phones and tablets as the competition catches up. It is this which is giving Wall Street the jitters.

Is this a problem Ahrendts can solve?

There’s been plenty of puffery since her appointment about the "brilliant" symbiosis of the move, while wags have described both Apple and Burberry as "fashion brands". Others reckon she’s something called a “fashion play”, somebody who will influence future products.

But long before she can even get a sniff at Apple's CEO chair, Ahrendts has her work cut out sorting out Apple’s retail mess.

Apple’s shops expanded massively during the 2000s and early 2010s under retail boss Ron Johnson to hit 408 outlets with growing revenue. What started as a risky, even preposterous idea in 2001 has now been emulated by others – including, yes, Microsoft.

Under Johnson’s replacement John Bowett, the former Dixons Retail CEO, sales fell quarter by quarter. The retail chief’s position has been left vacant for a year since Bowett was axed, with sales growing at eight per cent in the first nine months of fiscal 2013.

Cutting the bruised bits from the rotten apple?

Ahrendts’ mission is to drive fresh growth in Apple retail. But she must go further: she must combine retail and digital sales, along with marketing, and beef up the brand. She needs to give consumers a reason to keep buying Apple in a market of cheaper alternatives.

Success in retail will give Ahrendts the corporate credibility and political base inside Apple to expand her influence inside the firm and possibly take a shot at CEO. Apart from that, Ahrendts must convince the power brokers inside Apple and on Wall Street that she’s got the brains and the brawn to run a company the size of Apple.

Burberry might have been an outstanding fashion brand, but it was still just a £1.9bn revenue company versus the £105bn ($169bn) in sales that Apple churned out last year.

Whether an Ahrendts CEO-ship would give Wall Street the company it wants – a company with new technology ideas – is unclear. At Burberry, she implemented a five-year plan (PDF) to turn the Burberry into a design, marketing and retail-led company.

Burberry went thought a tough time: it went from being unfashionable in the 1990s to over-exposure by the time of the early 2000s. Its coolest moment was when celebrities like Madonna sported Burberry. Its nadir, which followed shortly afterwards, was when local soap star Daniella Westbrook was papped wearing matching Burberry, while her baby and stroller were adorned in matching finery - and let's not forget the moment Essex girls began sporting Burberry fingernails.

Ahrendts pulled Burberry back from that brink.

But Apple under CEO Ahrendts would be no more techie than Apple under Cook, and it would still leave the company bereft of the "next" Steve Jobs.

Ahrendts is a huge advocate of digital marketing – Salesforce’s Benioff is a big fan, too. Salesforce client coffee giant Starbucks, for example, which used his CRM and social software to “engage” with coffee addicts and revive a once-flagging and over=exposed brand.

As Apple CEO, Ahrendts would be a reasonably good choice: burnishing the brand and enhancing its loyal following, seeing off the chavs and building the luxury cachet.

Ultimately, though, the innovation would be in a constantly updating marketing strategy rather than in the technology itself. Wall Street, and Apple, could do worse than stick with Cook. For now. ®