Steve, in short, leaves the company in the best shape in its history: it has immense amounts of cash, killer products, high quality management and devoted customers.
Qualcomm faces a thicket of new challenges--a revolt by some of its biggest customers, an antitrust suit led by corporate killer David Boies and an unrelenting pace of wireless innovation that could render Qualcomm irrelevant if it doesn't constantly update its patent library.