[brashrat]

A personality like Steve Jobs's would never tolerate having another Steve Jobs around, so this is what I always assumed. Steve was always laser focused on a small number of elements to create buzz (one button, really thin, it's a cube...) and a small number of products (goodbye old model, here is new model, it's not compatible).

Tim Cook has been adding blur from the first moment.

I also see an odd parallel in another corporate transition... even though it's the same leadership, is the new re/code more than a shadow of the old All Things D?

[mwfunk]

Tim Cook is an operations guy, Steve Jobs was a product guy. Tim Cook hasn't been "adding blur" to anything. CEOs have an executive role but whatever they do beyond the usual management and delegation stuff is more a function of their personal interests than explicit responsibilities that are part of the job description. It's very unusual for CEOs to micromanage product design, and in most cases it's an organizational antipattern when they do.