Phil Schiller

After Steve Jobs: Handicapping Apple's back bench

"You know, I think it wouldn't be a party," Steve Jobs told Fortune in February, describing the future of his company if, as he put it, Jobs got hit by a bus. "But there are really capable people at Apple. ... My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors."

Life at Apple without Jobs may be more than just a hypothetical. The 53-year-old Silicon Valley MORE

Video: Apple's PR machinery caught on tape (updated)

Managing public opinion is an important factor in the success of any big consumer electronics enterprise, and Apple (AAPL) does it better than most -- largely by staying out of the picture and letting Steve Jobs speak for the company.

But every once and a while the machinery with which Apple keeps a firm grip on the media shows through, and this is one of those occasions.

Under the heading Great Moments MORE