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Steve Jobs Resigns As Apple CEO
An anonymous reader writes "The title says it all, really; Steve Jobs has resigned as the CEO of Apple, and would like to become Chairman of the Board. Reasons are not specified, but his declining health of recent years is a likely candidate. He's named Tim Cook as his successor."
We'll miss you, Mr. Jobs. Wish you good health.
Sincerely,
Apple fans everywhere
Let's be blunt. Only nerds on tech sites worry about "closeness." They're a tiny niche that wants to keep their nerd playgrounds around. The vast majority simply wants good products that work.
Even though I don't qualify as an Apple Fanboy, Steve's impact on the world of computing is felt everyday by all of us.
While Xerox PARC did the original GUI environment, and invented little things like the Mouse, Steve's vision with the Mac changed the computer world. It made computer accessible, influencing Windows and other OSs to make their system accessible to the masses.
Apple, Next, Pixar, Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPads.
I believe Steve made the world better.
Put your feet up, go fishing, read some books. Lord knows you've earned it. And nope, I'm not an Apple man - but I recognize hard work when I see it.
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
but I don't see how this is sad at all.
The most probable reason for this particular change is that Steve's health is failing; and this announcment is a proxy for "Guys, I'm not going to be ok."
do you really think he'd resign if his health was 100%? The fact that he's stepping down is definitely worrying, it's not likely he's stepping down to go work for another company or doing something else.
And no, I don't know him in person, but I definitely respect him and his accomplishments, and wish him well, and I'm sure a lot of others are feeling the same way.
-- the cake is a lie
I'm rather saddened by this news. Jobs' attention to detail and intolerance of crap amazes and inspires me.
It's simple, really. We should all have such high standards, perhaps then the world would be full of more exquisite and useful things.
Because unfortunately Steve was one of the few CEOs of big American Corps that actually gave 2 shits about the product that his company made. Outside of a few others(Google being chief among them), the modern American CEO couldn't really give a flying fuck about what the company actually makes(see Balmer, Fiorna). They are there to absorb as much money as they can while doing nothing but playing financial games with the company's balance sheets. Love him or hate him, you cannot deny that Steve was genuinely passionate about technology.
Monstar L
Steve Jobs is the embodiment of the American Dream, there are scant few individuals on this earth than can attest to the scale of success that he has achieved.
Jobs is arguably the best business leader of our era.
He co-founded the hugely successful Apple out of the proverbial garage, got fired from his own company, went off and started NeXT, bought Pixar from George Lucas and turned it into something big. At the same time, he came back to Apple, made a huge hit with the iMac, then the iPod, then the iPhone, and now the iPad. Now Apple one of the most successful companies around. I'm not sure if any other business leader's accomplishments could beat that story.
What impresses me is, as others have said, he actually cared about the products his company made. He wanted to make a "dent in the universe" and he actually did. He didn't do it by managing to costs or other things that business schools tell people to do, but by putting products and the user experience first.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
"Then, maybe, just maybe, I could consider buying a Mac. But then again, more factories like Foxconn wouldn't exactly be great."
Right. Because those Foxconn components in your Dell, HP, or Lenovo PC, or Android phone are made by the *not* evil Foxconn. You know, the one in Iowa where everyone makes UAW level wages, gets free health care and plenty of paid time off.....
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
End of an era. I started with an Apple ][+ and am typing this on my iPad 2. These definitely been ups and downs, and I still love the old NeXTStep OS.
On the plus side, it looks like the short term (next 1-2 years) is taken care of.
iPhone5-cross carrier
iPad3
The new paradigm machines due out later this year (not sure what this is besides an A5 ultralight/ultra cheap)
AppleTV becomes a game console.
Live well, Steve. You may have been pompous and arrogant, but you cared about the design.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
It's not Carly Fiorina coming in and fucking up HP for a few years and leaving - Steve Jobs started the company, worked there ~10 years, left for a few, then came back and was CEO for 14 more. No other CEO on the planet is so closely associated with their company. As a pillar of the tech industry, his input drove the state of the art forward. It is a loss for the tech world when any big name leaves for good. By the way, this website is called Slashdot, and its a place for "News for Nerds," you know, people who generally care about technology.
This is where I get my recommended daily allowance of "Foot in Mouth."
Only aircraft engineers care about mechanical safety.
That doesn't mean it's not important.
The average technophobe doesn't worry about openness because they already have it and take it for granted, much like the average airline passenger takes for granted that the plane their flying on wont fall apart. What they dont know, nor want to know is that a lot of work goes on in the background by very dedicated people to ensure that everyone can enjoy the boon of openness or safe flights.
Shove the average person into a world of "closedness" and they'll start caring about it quick smart.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
But realistically, he took the whole open platforms and devices to really bad direction with the closeness of iOS and maybe upcoming Macs.
Apple shareholders would beg to differ.
What a coincidence! Standard Oil's shareholders said the same thing back in the day....
Color me leery when people start equating "makes lots of money for a limited number of rich people" with "doing the right thing."
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
He mostly set it in design. But realistically, he took the whole open platforms and devices to really bad direction with the closeness of iOS and maybe upcoming Macs. Would you really want that for computer world?
What a silly question.
Open systems need competition from closed systems just as closed systems need competition from open systems.
A complete lack of direction cannot be the only way forward, and lack of diversity is not healthy. You need both.
Seeing a problem and warning other just helps keep the consumer aware of the limitation of the device they are purchasing.
" If yes, STFU, you KNEW what you were getting into when you laid down the plastic at the Apple Store or Amazon." Since apple doesn't go out of there way to tell people of their limitations, how do you know he was fully informed?
Limitation? It's a fucking appliance, dude -- you don't buy a dishwasher if you want to do something besides wash dishes, do you? Apple devices are aimed at people that want the functionality, and have zero interest or desire in the mechanism that delivers the functionality. I'm a sysadmin, not a motorcycle geek -- I buy a motorcycle not because it is the most fuel efficient one, or the most mechanically reliable one. I bought a Ducati 1098 because it does what I fucking want it to do -- go insanely fast and look really good in my parking slot at work. I admin linux/windows/solaris/HPUX boxen, but I use an iPhone and an iPad because they do what I want them to do without having to RTFM. Just like my Ducati and my dishwasher.