The announcement made by Steve Jobs that he is leaving the company until June due to medical reasons has come as a shock not only for Apple’s fans, but also for media and the analysts.
In fact, Steve Jobs’ health has been a subject of debate since last year’s WWDC when his appearance has lead to rumors that he could have a recurrent cancer or other health problems. He lost weight and he was very thin and pale.
In early October 2008, a false report published on the citizen journalism section of Time Warner’s CNN that Steve Jobs was taken to the emergency room after suffering from “a massive heart attack” has sent the company’s share down with 10 percent. In August, Bloomberg newswire accidentally published Steve Jobs obituary. The 17-page obituary of Jobs was immediately pulled from the news wire, but not before Gawker.com was able to save it and publish it.
However, all through last year, Apple repeatedly said that his health is good and dismissed any rumors. In September, during the highly anticipated release of Apple’s new iPod nano music player Steve Jobs addressed the widely debated health issue.
A quotation borrowed from Mark Twain saying "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" was shown on a screen near the stage, proving that Steve Jobs can also be funny when the situation calls for it.
However, earlier this month, after he pulled out from Macworld, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter, saying that after thorough investigations, his doctors found a hormone imbalance that ‘robbed’ him of his proteins to be the cause of his weight loss. At this year’s Macworld Steve Jobs was replaced by Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.
But despite the fact he said he will keep his job as Apple CEO, yesterday Steve Jobs announced in an e-mail sent to Apple employee that he will take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.
In his e-mail Steve Jobs noted that he has learned that his health issues are more complex that thought. He also appointed Timothy Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations.
Timothy Cook is now Apple’s chief operating officer and he is responsible for all of the company's worldwide sales and operations, including end-to-end management of Apple’s supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries. Before joining Apple, Cook was vice president of Corporate Materials for Compaq and was responsible for procuring and managing all of Compaq’s product inventory. Previous to his work at Compaq, Cook was the chief operating officer of the Reseller Division at Intelligent Electronics. Cook also spent 12 years with IBM and he earned an M.B.A. from Duke University, where he was a Fuqua Scholar, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Auburn University.
But the news sparked a storm of comment from analysts, bloggers and Apple's legions of fans on the internet. Many wrote that it was unlikely that Jobs would ever return to the company he founded and twice guided to the vanguard of the technology revolution.
Apple's success is closely associated with Jobs' leadership, and his decision is expected to have a detrimental effect on the company's performance. Regular trading in Apple shares was halted immediately after the announcement, but in after-hours trading the stock plunged almost 8 per cent to 78.84 dollars per share.
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, and was instrumental in helping foster the personal computer revolution by popularizing such technology staples as the mouse and the graphical user interface. However, he was forced out of the company after losing a power struggle with the board in 1985, a move that was followed by a rapid decline in Apple's fortunes.
He returned in 1997 and proceeded to revitalize the ailing company with a focus on design and new technology that yielded such market hits as the iPod and music website iTunes, the iPhone and the iMac. He is also the founder of Pixar Animation Studios. And with Jobs leaving Apple’s ship many analysts are wondering if the company’s officials will be able to preserve his legacy.
The group of previously unknown super-heroes, which are now in the spotlight due to Jobs’ medical leave, numbers 11 people: Timothy D. Cook, Tony Fadell, Ron Johnson, Philip W. Schiller, Scott Forstall, Jonathan Ive, Peter Oppenheimer, Bertrand Serlet, Sina Tamaddon, Daniel Cooperman, Bob Mansfield.
However, is still unclear is Tim Cook or another official will manage to successfully replace Steve Jobs.Many analysts consider that Apple has a strong position and with or without Jobs, the things are already in motion and his departure won’t change too much in the company’s future.
On the other hand, Steve Jobs was so far responsible for all Apple’s major breakthroughs and it would be hard to think of Apple as a Jobless company. But the time will tell how much Jobs meant for Apple and if there’s a life after Jobs!
