“Does Apple’s Steve Jobs have cancer again?” Henry Blodget asks for SIlicon Alley Insider.
“In the photos we saw of yesterday’s event, Steve appeared dangerously thin. The most likely explanation, we think, is that Steve permanently changed his diet after his bout with cancer a few years ago. Given that Steve did not believe that cancer needed to be disclosed publicly until after the fact, however, it also seems possible that the weight loss could be an indication that Steve’s cancer has reappeared,” Blodget writes.
“We hope it hasn’t. As we argued here, however, we believe that Steve’s cancer should have been disclosed earlier, and–if it ever recurs–should immediately be disclosed. It seems inappropriate to ask Apple to issue a statement confirming that Steve is in perfect health, but we know such a statement would make some of concerned Apple and Steve fans feel better,” Blodget writes.
Full article here.
Valleywag’s Nicholas Carlson writes, “Doctors diagnosed Apple CEO Steve Jobs with pancreatic cancer in October 2003. Jobs hid the news from Apple shareholders until July 2004 — after he’d explored all other alternatives to surgery, and had to schedule time away from the office to go under the knife. People watching the imperiously slim presenter at the WWDC today are finding it hard to look at Job’s frailer-than-ever frame and not wonder if he’s still suffering.”
Full article, “Apple CEO Steve Jobs looks dangerously thin,” here.
When we first saw Jobs we worried, too. We’ve since somehow convinced ourselves that “everything’s okay,” (classic denial, perhaps), but, seriously, we’d really like for Apple to tell us publicly about Steve’s “robust health” again, or at least see the results of someone feeding the man, or hear that he just won a marathon somewhere. There’s “thin” and there’s “too thin.” Steve is “too thin” for a man with a past cancer history who has millions of shareholders invested in Apple; many who have invested in the company mostly because of his presence.
Even Drudge this morning has a headline “Concern over APPLE Steve Jobs’s physical appearance…” pointing to an AP photo gallery of Jobs on stage yesterday.
Apple need to address this issue again.
[UPDATE: 4:20pm EDT: Apple has addressed the issue: Apple: CEO Steve Jobs has ‘common bug’ and now on the mend with the aid of antibiotics – June 10, 2008]
He looks thin, perhaps too thin, but I wouldn’t say he looks sick.
I thought it was just me who thought Jobs looked a little light in the britches. I see others were concerned as well. That man can’t die, I need him to keep pushing his vision on his team to create even more great things.
Disappointed pundits need SOME way to drive the stock price down. Will someone please give Steve a sandwich.
I lost my Dad to cancer a year and a half ago. Steve looks remarkably similar to my dad while he was going thru chemo as far as his weight is concerned. Simply from a view of concern for another human being, Steve does not look healthy. I sincerely hope SJ is in good health.
how tall is Steve?
at 5-10″, the bmi index of a normal adult will result in a weight range of: approx 130 to 170 lbs with the high end being approx 30% more than the low range
wide range
It looks like cachexia to me. I’ve known two people who’ve had it, and I have witnessed its progression.
Cachexia is the name of a symptom in which a person wastes away. The body gradually loses its ability to absorb nutrients from food, so it consumes itself: body fat and then muscle–remember, the esophagus and the heart are muscles. When my father developed it, they tested him for every sort of cancer they could think of, because it is a symptom of cancer. However, in his case, it has a different cause.
My father has difficulty swallowing, and he is becoming weaker and weaker. He has difficulty standing and walking, and he can no longer lift his own body weight. (There are feathers that weigh more than him.) If he falls, he can’t get up. Just carrying a five-pound bag of sugar is an athletic feat for him. He now looks like a skeleton with skin. I don’t know how much longer he will remain ambulatory.
The next step could be organ failure.
I knew one other person who had cachexia as a part of post-polio syndrome. He eventually died because he didn’t have the strength to breathe. There was no mental impairment at all, and my father’s mind is still sharp enough to draw blood.
As I say, this looks like cachexia. Steve looks just like my father did a few months ago. It doesn’t mean he has cancer. It could be the consequence of something he had earlier in his life. I think this is why Steve has talked about his successors, and why he acted as an emcee more than a presenter at this WWDC.
Pardon me while I get horribly sad.
the macbook air is extremely thin too.
Short version: Steve is starving to death, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
People, people, Jobs is not a vegetarian!
From Wiki:
“Jobs is not a vegetarian or vegan as is often claimed. Although he does not eat mammalian meat or fowl, he eats fish from time to time. This is known as pescetarianism.[39]”
Personally, I think he could use some good ‘ol Alberta AAA beef.
I know that this is hard for us Apple fanatics to accept, but Steve’s health is his own concern and not ours. He doesn’t have to disclose anything to anyone at any time, period. If I had as many wierdo’s like us constantly commenting on my weight gain or loss, general health, etc, I probably wouldn’t be too generous on details either. But the fact remains: health issues are a totally private concern between his doctor and himself.
Regardless of what will happen to Steve jobs in the short or long term, we have to accept another thing: Apple WILL continue after Steve. The faster that we all come to accept the mortality of Steve and ourselves, the faster that we’ll accept this basic fact.
We could remain in denial, and believe that Steve is builidng the supercomputer of the future so that he can implant his sole into it, and we’ll all call walk around and him “Landrew”, but I just don’t think so.
Now that I think about it, many people in the northern rural regions of the United States as well as through Europe are also quite thin. It’s a difference of lifestyle that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s got any kind of dangerous ailment. Also, somebody on Valleywag’s comment board rightfully posted that if CANCER had done that to him, then he wouldn’t be on stage talking and walking around. He’d be dead or close to it. That said, I think he’s lost a lot of the strong, aggressive authority that came with his physical stature–this is a real business phenomenon–and I wonder if any of it had to do with iPhone’s now-deadened special treatment from AT&T;. For example, some of my friends watching the keynote with me yesterday called him “nerdy,” or “wimpy,” whereas the Steve of two or three years ago would command quite a different aura.
Three weeks ago at a meeting I had with Apple, Steve looked a little thin but he was full of energy and acted fine. It’s not uncommon for Steve to drop a few pounds when he’s been traveling a lot, which he’s done a lot of over the past few months. Because Steve keeps such a rigid diet, when he travels he does not eat as he should, as it’s often impossible for him to match his diet with the locally available food stuffs. So, instead of comprising his diet he just does not eat. Steve’s weight loss should not be a surprise to anyone that has looked at how much and to how many different countries in the past few months that he’s been to. Now that the iPhone, carrier and distribution deals have been done for most countries (all the major markets anyway) he’ll start slowly gaining the 2 or 3 pounds back that he’s lost.
I lost 50 lbs. last year by exercising every day, and eating mostly “live” food. I was surprised at how many people asked if I was “alright?”
In the age of 30+ BMIs, being at the low end of the acceptable BMI scale (near 21) seems to many emaciated. To me it feels great.
You know what they say, “If you want to appear skinny, hang out with fat people.”
AMERICANS!
YOU ARE ALL NUTS!!!
Are you all so fat and obese that your entire perception of the human body has shifted so dramatically as a result?
Steve Jobs is thin – Yes he is even very thin!
So what!… Thinness is NOT an indicator of sickness, gringo morons!
Steve Jobs looks thin AND good, and if anything, he is unlikely to drop dead from heart failure anytime soon. And for all the speculative McJoe’s out there, please remember that thin people live longer (about 20 years longer) than overweight blubber infested Americanos.
You seem to have a national case of body dysmorphia going on there!
@Harvey,
Cachexia is a latin word to describe someone who is extremely thin– yes, in and of itself can describe a wasting process. You can describe someone as being cachectic in appearance. There are a vast array of medical issues that can include wasting of soft tissue. Anorexia or complications from HIV anyone? Using your radar diagnosis, I’ll send you a picture of my toe and you can diagnosis me too.
I wish SJ would opt for surgery, instead of his touchy feely hippie like approach. His 1% pancreatic cancer cell type is readily cured by surgery, and he is–IMHO– foolish not to go for it.
I know a lot about the subject. I have pancreatic cancer, the nasty kind. But mine was discovered before stage 4, so it was a primary only tumor, not metastatic. My oncologists are shocked that the disease has not spread for ten months now. I’d rather not go into more detail, but I actually have a significant chance of survival, unlike the stage 4 victims of this awful disease. But the pain is excruciating, even in my case.
Come on Steve, take the cure. Don’t allow yourself to die. APPL will sink like a lead weight in the ocean if that happens.
@ Gone Nuts
While I agree with you that everyone should have their privacy, as the CEO of a major multinational corporation he has a responsibility to share with his stock-holders his current health.
European John Doe:
We Americans are upside down when it comes to body image. I agree.
I can’t comment about all forms of cancer, or all forms of cancer treatment, but from my experience (my girlfriend had leukemia), cancer patients tend to be a bit chubby, not thin. At least in her case, as well as most of the patients I noticed at the hospital, they all experienced weight gain due to the steroids they were given to help boost their white blood cell count. The chemo they were given pretty much devastated the immune system, thus the need for steroids to help build it back up. The combination of steroids, and a lack of activity from lying in a bed all day, resulted in very noticeable weight gain, in some cases, as much as 30 or 40 pounds.
Of course, like I said, I don’t know how pancreatic cancer is treated. I don’t know if there are any similarities with how leukemia is treated.
I thought Scott Forstall did a great job…even had a touch of wryness that spoke of reserve, and class.
Better than Phil’s “just under the surface” rumblings of something like chastened hostility.
@ Apple Cider
I don’t think your taunt or attempt at humor is appropriate. I live with this 24 hours a day. I know what it looks like.
@LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon
i wish you all the best. i hope everything will be alright soon.
steve jobs had the surgery in september 2004 (if i remember it correct) after considering alternatives.
We go through this EVERY freakin’ year. “Steve looks sick”. Christ people leave the guy alone!
@ Harvey: I’m not attempting to belittle your condition, merely underscoring the fact that one can not make medical diagnoses simply based on a rather “thin” looking appearance.
@LinuxGuy…: Again, from Wiki: “After initially resisting the idea of conventional medical intervention and embarking on a special diet to thwart the disease, July 31, 2004 Jobs underwent surgery that successfully removed the tumor.”
Steve Jobs had surgery for cancer in 2004. In an E-mail message to employees during this period, he said he had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas but expects a full recovery.