Apple's board in a state of transition

While Steve Jobs's passing came with a lot of powerful emotional effects, it did unfortunately arrive with at least one practical effect that has to be dealt with sooner or later: Apple needs a new Chairman of the Board. A few experts say in this Reuters piece that it will probably be a tough choice for Apple to make. On the one hand, Apple's strength is in Jobs' legacy -- the company has to be committed to continuing to follow his vision, because that's what got them where they are today. On the other hand this may be a chance for Apple to diversify its team a bit, and bring in some new personnel who don't have a past history of politics inside the company.

There's of course a third option, which is that Apple's board doesn't appoint a new chairman for a while, instead working on other priorities before taking on the enormous task of filling Jobs's spot. That might be the best option -- before Jobs took on the Chairman of the Board position as he retired, the company didn't have one anyway.

Otherwise, Tim Cook's name is apparently going around as a possible successor, but insiders are saying that as CEO, he's already too busy to take on anything else. We'll have to see -- these next few months will be critical for Apple, as it tries to turn and face the future without the visionary that has pushed it along for so long.