At the beginning of the project, the business analyst and product managers supplied a long wish list of features and a timeline for product delivery that fell within the competitive market window.

"Tim is obsessive about operational detail, and Steve is obsessive about product detail," said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray.

Mr Jobs' departure will have "no impact from a product strategy point of view for probably a couple of years", said Charles Golvin, Forrester analyst.