CBS had us going on Monday with a clip of Larry Ellison seemingly saying that Apple will crash and burn without the late Steve Jobs. The full interview offers a slightly different take, however, one in which Mr. Ellison calls Steve Jobs “irreplaceable” and says that Apple won't do as well without him.
Mr. Ellison is right, of course. Steve Jobs is irreplaceable. Whether or not Apple can do as well without him remains to be seen. I've argued repeatedly that if you think Steve Jobs was the bee's knees (I do), you should believe him when he said that he rebuilt Apple to live on without him.
Mr. Jobs said just that to biographer Walter Isaacson.
That's neither here nor there, however, at least when it comes to the Larry Ellison interview with Charlie Rose that was aired Tuesday morning on CBS. Mr. Ellison was speaking as a grieving friend who lost his “best friend of 25 years” to cancer. He's allowed a bit of poetic license when discussing the impact of his friend's loss, and the very least thing anyone can say is that Apple (and the world) won't be the same without Steve Jobs.
So, let's look at the full interview as aired on CBS's website. It's a seven minute segment, and it includes some other interesting comments, too: