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Steve Jobs Taking Medical Leave of Absence

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the zomg-everybody-panic dept.

Uttini writes "Apple CEO Steve Jobs has just announced that he is taking a medical leave of absence, according to a release issued by the company today. While it's unclear what the reason is for the medical leave, Jobs' previous medical history includes pancreatic cancer as well as a liver transplant. While Jobs is out, Tim Cook is to be responsible for all of Apple's day to day operations."

7 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. It's good Tim is getting more exposure by DTemp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    (Orthogonal to the fact that everyone wishes Steve good health,)

    It's good for Apple that Tim Cook is getting so much exposure at the helm. There are many shareholders, as well as a significant amount of the tech press, that think Apple can't stand on its own without Steve. Any way Apple can show that it can continue it's current success streak with or without Steve is good for the long-term health of the company.

  2. Re:Wishing him well by RDW · · Score: 4, Interesting

    'now if this was a stock market news site...'

    The BBC is reporting Apple shares in Frankfurt are down 7% already, and CNN notes that Apple is due to release an earnings report tomorrow. So I guess the announcement was particularly carefully timed, not only falling on a US public holiday, but coming just before an earnings report that will presumably be positive and help to mitigate the damage when the US market re-opens. But that's just good business, of course. Best wishes to Steve!

  3. Fucking stupid by Pojut · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I never understood the volatility of Apple's stock. Jobs could stub his toe and the stock would drop. Someone who works at Infinite Loop could get constipated, and the stock would drop. Someone's iPhone could get a scratch on the front glass, and the stock would drop.

    Why is Apple's stock so prone to heavy fluctuation at the even the slightest hint of something not being perfect?

    --
    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:Fucking stupid by paiute · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I never understood the volatility of Apple's stock. Jobs could stub his toe and the stock would drop. Someone who works at Infinite Loop could get constipated, and the stock would drop. Someone's iPhone could get a scratch on the front glass, and the stock would drop.

      Why is Apple's stock so prone to heavy fluctuation at the even the slightest hint of something not being perfect?

      Because the truth is that those who are paid big money to analyze the market are not as stupid as we here on Mount Slashdot would like to believe. I would venture to say that they think that one big reason for Apple's success over the years is their ability to go be consistently contrarian. Apple does not follow the crowd in design and implementation. They do not get involved in races to the bottom, and they hew closely to the principle of simplification of the end user's experience instead of packing a product with buttons and a thousand "features". All of these things are in stark contrast to what is taught in business school. So if Jobs goes down and Apple is then led by a modern Scully clone, the company might not do as well in the future.

      --
      If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    2. Re:Fucking stupid by gorzek · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Then how do you explain Microsoft, which has never had a very positive image, yet managed to dominate both the desktop operating system and Web browser markets?

      Just goes to show you, backroom deals and monopolist strongarming also have their place in business, and can sometimes trump "image."

      --
      Check out my world simulator thingy.
    3. Re:Fucking stupid by morgauxo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Maybe. OSX sure took a lot of steam out of the Linux desktop. But as much as it pains me to admit, there were/are other issues involved.

      Just as games were starting to be released for Linux the video drivers really went down the toilet. Sure, it was due to the ideology conflict between FOSS and proprietary hardware vendors, not a technical problem with Linux. That distinction didn't change the fact your card wouldn't work. This is getting quite a bit better now but it sucked for a really long time. Now 3d support is 'necessary' even for normal non-game desktop use if you want to fulfill current user's expectations.

      Some might argue that the shift from hobbyist based kernel development to corporate sponsored either helped or hurt the Desktop. Read about the conflict between the kernel developers and Con Kolivas. The desktop just hasn't been the major focus for a while. It's totally anecdotal but I know my desktop seemed to get less and less responsive with updates until I finally started using BFS.

      And then there is removable media... It's finally getting back to where you can pop in a CD/USB stick and it will mount it and ask you what to do with it.. if you are using one of the heavy desktops like KDE or Gnome that is. I once had a desktop that would access a CDRW using packet writing and supermount just as easily as Windows/DOS used to access a floppy disk! Shortly afterword supermount was gone and the support we have today involves a variety of daemons, u-dev rules, etc... which all have to be working for anything to happen.

  4. Re:Wishing him well by ceeam · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Oh, and as for the money, Woz's own take on it is kinda maybe interesting: http://www.woz.org/letters/general/91.html