An article in the Wall Street Journal (August 26, 2011) describes the potential impact of Steve Jobs resignation as CEO of Apple on the company’s possible new products and demand. Given that many of Apple’s suppliers are in Asia and include Samsung, Toshiba and LG, a drop in Apple’s product demand will immediately impact their component demand. But the same companies also participate in products competing with Apple, thus permitting them to increase demand for their own end products. Given the rapid ramp up of Apple’s products the past few years, will Apple’s new leadership result in an overall negative impact on Asian suppliers ? Will a possibly weakened Apple product development enable more competition in the tablet and smartphone market ? Will these changes increase or decrease costs for customers to get innovative products ?