Who will tell me what I want to buy now?

That was my first reaction to Steve Jobs' passing away on Wednesday.

I wasn't the only one who didn't think I needed a tablet last year. Then Jobs told us how magical the iPad would be.

I wasn't the only one who didn't think a phone without buttons could be a practical device when the iPhone rolled out in 2007. Now it's hard to find a smartphone that isn't navigated by touch.

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is going to miss Jobs in so many ways, but will he ever be replaced as a master marketer? The market generally wasn't pleased with Tuesday's conference introducing the iPhone 4S. Folks wanted the evolutionary iPhone 5 -- and not just an upgraded iPhone 4.

Maybe Jobs wouldn't have been able to sell the iPhone 4S any better, but now we'll never know.

I guess I'll have to decide what I want to buy next on my own.

Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

  • It was a good week for beaten-down stocks to shine as buyout candidates, as Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM), Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) all received plenty of press playing them up as acquisition bait.
  • Zumiez (Nasdaq: ZUMZ) was one of the week's biggest retail winners. The edgy mall chain delivered same-store sales growth of 10.1% for September, more than triple the comps the market was expecting.
  • OmniVision (Nasdaq: OVTI) shareholders cracked a smile after analysts generally agreed that it's the company behind the camera chips in Apple's new iPhone 4S.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz