Apple's mystique may grow with Jobs' death

In the end, Steve Jobs left the worldto his own devices. As macabre as it might seem, Jobs' death on Wednesday willonly add to the Apple mystique - and profit. The iPhone, iPad, iPod and Macwill, no doubt, get a sales boost as consumers pay the ultimate tribute to oneof America'screative geniuses.

PROFILE: Steve Jobs - The Master Inventor

That could be especially true for the latest iPhone,scheduled to go on sale October 14. The lines were going to be long anyway, butnow there are bound to be even more people clambering for the iPhone 4S - thelast device to be unveiled while Jobs was alive.

It's a commercial phenomenon that has happened many timesbefore, most recently when Michael Jackson's album and song sales rocketedafter the pop singer died in 2009.

"Steve Jobs was a rock star, someone on the scale ofBenjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison," said Steven Osinski, a marketingprofessor at San Diego State University."I think it's very likely there is going to be an upsurge in Apple's salesfor a while."

PICTURES: 10 jobs that defined Steve Jobs' career

Anything designed by revered figures invariably becomehotter commodities after their death, said Michael Bernacchi, a marketingprofessor at the University of Detroit Mercy.

"These products have significant emotional value, theyhave sentimental value, they're connected, if you will, to the bloodstream ofthe person who's likely to be the purchaser," Bernacchi said."There's a certain nostalgic value attached to that.

Life and work of Steve Jobs

"Mr. Jobs really continues to exist in a much differentmanner through these products," Bernacchi said.

It can't hurt that many of Apple's 357 stores already haveturned into shrines, attracting people who want to mourn together. It's nothard to imagine some of them wandering into the stores and buying an iPad orMac.

Consider the scene Thursday at Apple's San Francisco store.

A memorial of flowers lined the sidewalk and handwrittennotes were plastered on the window. One note read: "You made the world abetter place." Another proclaimed "hungry and foolish 4 ever," anod to one of Jobs' favorite sayings.

Inside the store, it was business as usual. Upbeatrock-and-roll music played, and shoppers clustered around the iPad display.

Javier Martinez, a medical doctor vacationing from Spain, passedby and snapped pictures of the scene with his iPhone 4. Although he has noimmediate plans to buy the new version, he is committed to continue buying theproducts that are a testament to Jobs' genius.

"He's dead, but his soul is alive," Martinez said. "Hewas the soul of an idea for many people who want to do things better,differently."

Investors believe it will remain business as usual at Apple.Apple Inc. shares dipped only slightly on the first day of trading after thisdeath, down 88 cents Thursday to $377.37.

The sedate reaction represents a vote of confidence in themanagement team that Jobs assembled to carry out his vision. In his finalyears, Jobs increasingly shared the stage with his lieutenants in a move thattelegraphed Apple wasn't just a one-man show.

Jobs also had ensured an orderly transition by resigning asCEO six weeks ago and turning over the job to his protg, Tim Cook.

As soon as he took the job, Cook vowed to maintain "acompany and culture that is unlike any other in the world." He will haveplenty of help from Jobs-groomed executives dubbed a management "dreamteam" by some analysts.

The other key players include marketing guru Phil Schiller,design chief Jonathan Ive, software mastermind Scott Forstall and the head offinance, Peter Oppenheimer. Nearly all the key Apple executives have been atthe company for years, many of them joining around the time of Jobs' 1997return.

It's widely believed that Apple's plans for the next two orthree years already had been largely worked out before Jobs died.

It's a given that a third-generation iPad will be releasednext year, but most analysts believe the logical next step will be for Apple tointroduce a large-screen television that runs on the same operating system asits computer tablet, phone and touch-screen iPod.

The only question seems to be whether the still-hypotheticaliTV will hit the market next year or 2013.

"Steve's style and his vision will live on, and itcould soon permeate the living room," predicted Sterne Agee analyst ShawWu.

After Walt Disney died in December 1966, the company seemedto be in good shape. Within a few months, Disneyland opened another popularattraction - the Pirates of the Caribbean -and released a hit movie, "The Jungle Book."

But Walt Disney had approved and was involved in bothprojects before he died.

After the pipeline went dry, Walt Disney Co. went through along creative malaise that lasted until it hired Michael Eisner in 1984 toengineer what proved to be a successful turnaround.

Forrester Research CEO George Colony is worried that Applewill eventually lose its way, causing historians to look back on Jobs' tenureas a golden age of technology.

"I hope that I am wrong," Colony wrote in aThursday blog post. "My hope is that Steve inspires all of us in thetechnology business to stop creating confusing, poorly-designed, slow, complex,ugly, maddening products that weigh down rather than lift up the work and soulsof people."