Scott Forstall, the guy leading Apple's mobile software, is the CEO-in-waiting, says Adam Lashinsky in his new book, "Inside Apple."
It makes sense that Forstall would be floated as a potential CEO since he's running the most important division at the company. Apple's iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches contribute over ~70% of the company's sales.
There are two things that make us hesitant to believe Forstall will be CEO.
First, Tim Cook is basically locked into a 10 year contract to be Apple CEO, via his stock package. Second, Forstall was recently profiled by BusinessWeek and the key takeaway from the profile is that he is a smart guy, but a divisive asshole.
Steve Jobs was a divisive asshole, but he got away with it because he led the development of the Mac, the iMac, the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Forstall doesn't have the same résumé, so it's possible he won't be embraced in the same way.
Here's the bullet points we wrote up on Forstall last October:
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