Jobs Takes Surprise Medical Leave of Absence from Apple
In a surprise announcement, Steven P. Jobs, the co-founder and CEO of Apple, will be taking a medical leave of absence of no specified length from arguably the world's most important technology company. The move comes after Jobs returned one and a half years after a liver transplant and another long medical leave—one that many thought would leave him mortally ill. So, questions are abounding about the state of Jobs' health in and out of the Apple company, among shareholders and competitors alike.
Jobs' letter to his employees was terse. He merely said: "At my request, the board of directs has granted me a leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.
"I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple's day-to-day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.
"I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy."
It should have been obvious that something was going on with Jobs during the big iPhone/Verizon announcement, because Cook and not Jobs made the Apple part of the announcement. However, that fact was lost in all the hoopla of moment. Others have noticed that Jobs has been looking more frail lately. Jobs suffers from immune system issues common with people who have received large organ transplants.
During Jobs' last medical leave of absence, Cook also took the helm. The difference this time is that Jobs does not say how long he will be gone. (The first leave was six months long.) Last time, Jobs—who recovered from pancreatic cancer in 2004—set a timeline and bounced back from his liver transplant to dig right in and spearheaded such projects as the iPad, the MacBook Air laptops, and the iPhone 4. He's been called the genius behind anticipating what the consumer wants and imagining sleek products like iPod, iPad, and iPhone, which competitors copy but never quite duplicate.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati