North American customers and those in the German speaking countries appear to have a different view of Apple without Steve Jobs at the helm after he retires. That was the surprising result of an iDelphi poll published on Thursday.
Both North American and German speaking customers were asked two questions:
1. When will Steve Jobs retire from his position as Appleis CEO?
2. Would you view Apple differently without Steve Jobs running the company?
While the years 2010 and 2012 came up most often for both groups on the retirement question, the surprising results were that most German speaking customers did not expect to change their view on Apple after Mr. Jobs leaves while the North Americans would.
The report explained the tentative results: "What is surprising, however, is the fact that North-American users seem more influenced by the person Steve Jobs in their views on Apple, while German-speaking users seem to rely less on him in their view on Apple....
One explanation could be the fact that in these countries, Apple was historically perceived as a supplier to creative professionals, not as a company being attracting to consumers. As a result, "die hard Apple fans" in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland might still connect more to the products rather than the company itself."