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Steve Jobs Taking Medical Leave of Absence
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."
I hope that no matter what operating system or computer manufacturer you love or hate, everyone can come together and wish him well. Whether you love or hate what he's done in the industry, he's a fellow human being first, and I hope he has a speedy recovery.
It's because Apple's not based on product, it's based on image. If anything seems like it could even start to threaten that image, people want out before it crashes.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
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
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."
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He had a rare type of pancreatic cancer called "Islet cell neuroendocrine tumor" which is far less deadly than most pancreatic cancer.
Sorry to throw a damper on your smug little rant, but it's not unusual at all that he would survive that.
MS never had a good image here. The suits and pencil pushers that actually get things purchased for business are a different story. "No one ever got fired for buying IBM" basically. /. is a tempest in a teacup when it comes to what the rest of the world likes or dislikes.
It's because Apple's not based on product, it's based on image. If anything seems like it could even start to threaten that image, people want out before it crashes.
Oh please. Any rational analysis of the history of computing will lead to the conclusion that Jobs is a visionary genius. NeXT created a computer in 1988 that had features that even today's computers don't have. The graphical system was vector based (PostScript), enabling resolution independence. It had an optical drive, years before CD-r existed. It was Unix based. It utilized a middleware framework called OpenStep that allowed an unprecedented degree of platform independence. This system became the basis for OS X. Microsoft didn't even come out with Windows 3.1 until 1992, four years later. Even today, no major OS has resolution independence, and Windows 7 is definitely NOT platform independent. I can think of no other example of a leader leaving such an indelible stamp on a company.
Indeed, the contrast of Mr. Jobs leadership with the rest of corporate America lays bare the fundamental faults of the latter. Corporate America has become beholden to visionless MBA bean counters, who think they can manage a company without underlying knowledge or insight into the business they direct. They treat management as a skill independent of the underlying businesses they manage. They put forward their management principles as unchallengeable "revealed truths". Contrast Mr. Job's leadership with that of Mr. Sculley who replaced him for a time. Sculley was the president of Pepsico before he took over at Apple. What made him think that his experience managing a soft drink company gave him the ability to lead a computer company I have no idea. But his tenure was an unmitigated disaster. Sculley simply had no vision of what computers should be. He had little insight into the difficulties of coding, the importance of good design, or the future developments in information technology.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)