But like they use to say, to understand the future we have to understand the past first. What was the value that Jobs was giving Apple? In my view, there are two main aspects:
The first and more obvious is product development. It is said (even it is difficult to know for sure, given the secretive nature of Apple) that Steve was involved in all the steps of product development, from the initial brainstormings to the final details, including "minor" things like the packaging. Here the key words are "attention to detail" and they way they map to real world products is a reduced line of products, with a limited number of features but where all efforts are taken to make sure the "right" ones are include none of the "wrong" ones are. This is an approach that relates more to what you usually see in Art than in many commercial products that try to get you itemized lists.
And this brings me to the second aspect. Precisely because Apple products were so uniquely Jobs', users tend to maintain a higher emotional connection with them than they have with other brands. That's because these products provide some kind of direct link to their author's personality, to put it in simple words it goes "from him to you". Directly. In contrast, from whom are coming Sony products? From a large corporation? From a group of designers? It is a lot more difficult to connect. Many technical commentators scoff at these attitudes as if Apple had "brainwashed" their users, because other brands would provide them with "more" for "less", but what they show is a lack of understanding of basic human behaviour.
Why would people, for example, prefer an expensive hand-made piece of furniture over a mass produced one? The mass produced one will be cheaper, and the "quality" can be as high in these days of computer directed production and quality control. However, the hand-made piece relates you to the Work of the Artisan, who is not an abstract entity but another human being and, fundamentally, tells a story. In my view these were precisely the strengths of Jobs' Apple, with Steve as the Head Artisan. Now they would need another person to take its place or perhaps even to have a new story as the old one may not be credible anymore with another starring character.
I always thought that Jonathan Ive could have been a replacement, being as he is the responsible for the design of most products. On the other hand he may be seen as too "arty" and far from the technological side to fully relate with Apple's customer base. But hey, we will see how it goes with Tim Cook.
ps: It appears that the first Apple computer, the Apple I, was actually handmade.
