“In one of the most curious vanishing acts in American corporate history, Apple CEO Steve Jobs remains on what is now the longest of his three medical leaves, popping up in public on the rare occasion, reportedly keeping an opaque remote control over major decisions but also prompting questions as Apple keeps its trademark veil of secrecy drawn tight over its iconic leader’s status,” Patrick May reports for The Mercury News.
“It’s now been more than six months since Jobs, often considered not only the face but also the heart and soul of Apple, has been gone,” May reports. “Yet he’s not really gone at all, though by one account he’s less involved in micromanaging every aspect of the business.”
May reports, “‘I don’t think you can draw too much from the length of the absence,’ said analyst Tim Bajarin with Creative Strategies. ‘We saw him at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and to me he looked the same as he did in March when he introduced the iPad 2. I think the process he’s going through is recuperative, which means he probably needs to be more at home and less physically active. But I don’t believe that’s diminished his role in any way. They tell me he calls in regularly. He talks to Tim, he talks to the top guys, he talks about the Apple stores. But while he used to micromanage everything in ways that most CEOs would not, right down to issues with the company cafeteria, the big change with his latest leave is that there’s less micromanagement and more management of his executive team and the big-picture issues.'”
Read more in the full article here.
I hope he is alright.
We all hope he is alright and doing better. Steve Jobs has several years of products and devices still to come that he already started in the Apple research and development labs. It is time to spend time with his wife and family. I wish them all peace with God and life. He has innovated us into a great time with his finger prints on many of the things we do every day and laid a great foundation for the innovations to come.
Take that well deserved time off please Steve. Thank you.
“When you hire really good people you have to give them a piece of the business and let them run with it. That doesn’t mean I don’t get to kibitz a lot. But the reason you’re hiring them is because you’re going to give them the reins. I want [them] making as good or better decisions than I would. So the way to do that is to have them know everything, not just in their part of the business, but in every part of the business.”–Steve Jobs
Source: Money.CNN.com (Fortune Magazine article). Available from . Internet; accessed 2008-03-06.
The pump don’t work,
because the vandals took the handle
Clearly he’s got the right people in the right places now so now he can take it easy.
Get well soon Steve
Steve, we are keeping you and your family in our thoughts and prayers. Get well.
Love Steve…truly a remarkable man…
but his absence explains the lack of thought in Lion.
… And thoughtless.
When was Lion developed? The last six months?
” right down to issues with the company cafeteria,”…
Oh, Brother?!
I worked for a company that had a “boss” like that. In no way was he Steve Jobs, the CEO icon that he is, but rather this boss, a “President” of the building and only part of a much larger national corporate entity, would check on making sure the employees were parked where “designated” and if not, get on with the publishing of a “Company Memo”, while employee morale and satisfaction was never a concern or queried.
I remember the Employee Christmas Party where this boss was brown nosing the higher ups. This was an aviation company and the place where I worked was based at the airport so, the Airport Manager, Port Authority etc. types were invited by the Boss to come over and partake in this catered event for the employees. They went first and when it was time for the employees to enjoy their EMPLOYEE Christmas Party, some of the foodstuffs were down to scraps and those little bunsen burners heating up the tray to keep the food nice and warm… don’t work too well.
At least there is now “Zen” in the Apple cafeteria!
Love ya, Steve, have and enjoy a great many of your products and wish you well, but I’m sure there were some superfluous comments from the cafeteria staff after you dealt with those issues with the company cafeteria… I can hear them now, saying…”Steve Jobs, along with his crew, are credited with the iPad, iPhone, iPod, iMac, OS X. Oh, and Steve did one helluva job on the lunchroom silverware!” Oh, that’s too rich!
Be well Steve!
Now, now I understand the events that shaped your worldview. I commiserate with your unfortunate work experiences. But I know of many that are far, far worse. Don’t let it get you down.
Yes…the final features were put into place within the last year. The core functionality has been around for a long time but those things that are truly at the users fingertips…those were approved for sale too… Since Apple does not use focus groups it has relied on Steve’s normally unerring sense of how to change the game. His lack of presence has clearly led to certain omissions or commissions that are pissing a lot of people off. No..not the power pc stuff, that’s expected but software incompatibilities, suddenly dropping Save As from Apple software though most other software still uses that convention, silly additions like Launch Pad (truly laughable and inefficient) and the de-evolution of Spaces into the oddly unusable Mission Control…don’t represent simplification as much as they do juvenilization. If you recall BOB from Microsoft, that disastrous attempt at a new interface…this is barely one step removed with cute names, big candy coated icons, and happy little animations with wonderful swooshing sounds. It’s fine really for those who like it…but preservation of choice, respect for users (especially professional level users), and an understanding of how work (not just media consumption) gets done when these devices are used as tools, seems to have become far, far less important to Apple. That falls to Steve, beyond any question.
Don’t quit your day job.
Rubbish!
SOOOOO happy you’re not making decisions around there.
Thanks for the intelligent and well considered responses. As if.
Pro users will use apps very specific to their exacting requirements and generally will know what they are doing on the mac in the first. Its not 1996 anymore and Apple has far larger audiences to cater for than the Pro level market.
Launchpad – like it or not, makes launching an app easy for those who dont want to go to finder, open a window, click on the app folder, scroll through to find the app you are looking for and then double click, or those who maybe dont know about using spotlight to quickly launch an app. Guess what, you have a choice here. Dont use it.
For your average user, isnt the hassle of having to save docs a nice omission for the standard suite of software? If you are a pro user, you would be, surely, more likely to use pro level apps as opposed to the lighter, retail focussed apps?
Software incompatibilities – times move on, apps break, apps get fixed, life is sometimes a bitch but we deal with it and move on.
How is Mission control unusable?
Lion appears less candy coated than previous OS X versions – and for the better. Now it has a smarter appearance.
I agree with the naming of things, anyone would think Apple were NASA, with big cats walking around the offices.
Consumers in the retail sector “consume” and pro users (who, as mentioned previously already know what they are doing) do the work. So, Apple have actually done a good job in making their product easy to use for the wider spectrum of users. Anyway, most sane thinking pro users wouldn’t have upgraded yet anyway (unless a developer – in which case i dare say they understand that things get ironed out and fine tuned as time progresses), waiting until incompatibilities are addressed before risking upgrading the machine on which they rely on their income.
Not trying to be arguementative, just my thoughts.
We LOVE you Steve, we love ya brother!
Cannot see as him needing to be on campus that much.
With video conferencing and remote desktop , he isn’t that far out of the loop unless he chooses to be.
U people just don’t get it. There is no Apple without Steve Jobs.
You’ll see.
Fghn, aren’t you forgetting a few things?
Your type (and we see a lot of “your type” around here) usually also declares that, “Once Apple reaches a certain percentage of installed users, the hackers will unleash a torrent of Apple OS viruses and malware of biblical proportions!”
Here, I’ll type it for you, “You’ll see.”
And doesn’t your type almost always claim to be very happy with your Windows 7 system, or Linux, even though you’ll state that you possess and have possessed many Macs and Apple products over the years, starting with a Lisa II ? – You know, to lend your statement some legitimacy, even though it’s plain as unflavoured sand that you’ve never owned an Apple product in your life?
Geez, even for a Troll, you’re kind of lazy.
Likey!
Sadly, Fghn, you are entirely correct. What we are seeing is a transition from something very special (Apple Inc.) to something like all the rest. There is no Steve Jobs replacement – what he has is a singular gift and, over a relatively short time, the scales over the eyes of his devoted followers, especially MDN, will begin to fall off and we will all see the reality of your prediction. The only upside for any of us is that we can again decide for ourselves what we want and not simply accept Steve’s control of our lives.
“The only upside for any of us is that we can again decide for ourselves what we want and not simply accept Steve’s control of our lives.”
Tom,
Steve controls your life?
Because of Steve Jobs, you can’t decide for yourself whether or not you want to continue building your haxies and Linux boxes?
Because of Steve Jobs, you no longer have the option to continue buying discounted, open-box Acers from the floor of Best Buy?
What?
And Tom (may I call you “Tommy”?), I’m confused by your apparent self-contradictions;
At first you state that Steve-led Apple is “something very special (Apple Inc.) “, and that it’s sad that it’s changing (“Sadly, Fghn, you are entirely correct.”).
But then you rejoice at the prospect of no longer being under the yoke of Steve Jobs.
– Please, Tommy, enlighten us; Steve Jobs’ Apple – Good, or Steve Jobs’ Apple – Bad?!
But really, Tommy, don’t fret. It’s quite common for you inexperienced Trolls to paint yourselves into a corner.
There’s hope, Tommy! With experience, you may become a better Troll!
@NHL (may I call you smash-mouth) – I’m not a troll but I’m sure I’ve been an Apple loyalists before you were born. In any event, I have never liked it when Jobs declared that he was going to eliminate things I wanted or needed such as DVDs, matte screens, a great iMovie app (HD), firewire, flash, a phone without an antenna blunder and, of late, quality support from Apple Care – when I call now, I get some kid who knows less than I and is absolutely useless in addressing the problem I called about. But, even in the face of his infamous arrogance, Steve is a true genius in the mold of Thomas Edison and Apple Inc. is destined for the ranks of the average without him at the helm. None of the members of the senior management team is any better than their counterparts across the tech world.
Oh, one more thing. Attn: AAPL owners. You’ve seen the top. When the post-Jobs era device is introduced – whatever it is – and it turns out to be like Windows 7, or a BB phone, or a buggy pad or some such, you’ll be sorry you thought Apple would work without Steve.
Lion is truly that evidence Tom… Hard to believe that they would introduce an OS that has so many bugs, breaks so much software, solves so few problems….It’s VERY MUCH like a Microsoft effort…which suggests that Apple has now grown so large that it has slipped into hubris and arrogance. Lion is very reminiscent of Windows Vista, only in that it seems so half baked, as if it had to be rushed out the door because something forced their hand or the timeline for something larger could not be changed. Anyone who tells you Lion is a fully formed professional ready OS isn’t a pro.