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."

Re:Wishing him well

[Bloodwine77]

I am not a fan of Macs, but the man initially bankrolled Pixar and was smart enough to stay out of their way. I also can respect that he turned around Apple Computer and thanks to that we have more choice in desktop and mobile devices now.

It's good Tim is getting more exposure

[DTemp]

(Orthogonal to the fact that everyone wishes Steve good health,)

It's good for Apple that Tim Cook is getting so much exposure at the helm. There are many shareholders, as well as a significant amount of the tech press, that think Apple can't stand on its own without Steve. Any way Apple can show that it can continue it's current success streak with or without Steve is good for the long-term health of the company.

Re:Wishing him well

[RDW]

'now if this was a stock market news site...'

The BBC is reporting Apple shares in Frankfurt are down 7% already, and CNN notes that Apple is due to release an earnings report tomorrow. So I guess the announcement was particularly carefully timed, not only falling on a US public holiday, but coming just before an earnings report that will presumably be positive and help to mitigate the damage when the US market re-opens. But that's just good business, of course. Best wishes to Steve!

Fucking stupid

[Pojut]

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?

Privacy for Jobs? Maybe that's not realistic.

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

Perhaps no other company is more tied to its CEO than Jobs, except maybe Warren Buffett. For as much as he and his family wish for privacy however it is reasonable for stockholders, especially HUGE stockholders to know how his condition is. When you buy a stock you are buying the leadership also. If anything this is probably going to drop AAPL's stock valuation down a bit to a more realistic level. 2nd biggest market cap in the world? Really? It certainly doesn't deserve it and with their margins getting squeezed and the fact that there only so many worlds they can conquer means that the shorts are probably going to make some $$$ on AAPL soon. Given that the survival of pancreatic cancer is so low and that Jobs decided to do more hippy dippy holistic approaches doesn't bode well for his survival. That's just the way it is. That being said, there probably is no visionary that comes close to Jobs and I am thankful for my iPhone, my iPod, my Mac and my iPad.

Re:Wishing him well

[ceeam]

Oh, and as for the money, Woz's own take on it is kinda maybe interesting: http://www.woz.org/letters/general/91.html [woz.org]

Re:Fucking stupid

[paiute]

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.

Re:Fucking stupid

[gorzek]

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."

Re:Wishing him well

[Assmasher]

Wozniack has made objective reports that he is a "terrible" person. Really? Terrible?

I did not stipulate the The Woz said he is either a terrible person or made 'objective reports' [sic] about Steve Jobs. You asked by what objective accounts do I deem Steve Jobs a terrible person. I gave you an example source. There are many.

no report made on the character of another person is truly objective

That is untrue unless you consider all objectivity impossible. Making an observation on someone's character is objective if you have no bias against that person. I used The Woz as an objective example when he's likely to be actually biased somewhat towards Steve Jobs (although I've always found him to be a reliable observer who was good at distinguishing between what he has observed and what he feels.)

No reason to wish them ill health.

I quite specifically stated that I did not wish him ill health.

You act as if you know of Steve Jobs past and present, so if you still think he's not a poor example of a human being, what's the point in arguing?

If you don't know much about Steve Jobs, you should read up on what people who know him and respect him say about him.

My primary reasons for finding him to be a terrible person are the accounts relating to how he has treated his daughter, The Woz, his employees, handicap parking, his manipulation of the organ waiting list through multiple listing, and his general total dishonesty in business.

Re:Fucking stupid

[morgauxo]

Maybe. OSX sure took a lot of steam out of the Linux desktop. But as much as it pains me to admit, there were/are other issues involved.

Just as games were starting to be released for Linux the video drivers really went down the toilet. Sure, it was due to the ideology conflict between FOSS and proprietary hardware vendors, not a technical problem with Linux. That distinction didn't change the fact your card wouldn't work. This is getting quite a bit better now but it sucked for a really long time. Now 3d support is 'necessary' even for normal non-game desktop use if you want to fulfill current user's expectations.

Some might argue that the shift from hobbyist based kernel development to corporate sponsored either helped or hurt the Desktop. Read about the conflict between the kernel developers and Con Kolivas. The desktop just hasn't been the major focus for a while. It's totally anecdotal but I know my desktop seemed to get less and less responsive with updates until I finally started using BFS.

And then there is removable media... It's finally getting back to where you can pop in a CD/USB stick and it will mount it and ask you what to do with it.. if you are using one of the heavy desktops like KDE or Gnome that is. I once had a desktop that would access a CDRW using packet writing and supermount just as easily as Windows/DOS used to access a floppy disk! Shortly afterword supermount was gone and the support we have today involves a variety of daemons, u-dev rules, etc... which all have to be working for anything to happen.

Re:Fucking stupid

[mjwx]

I call bullshit here.

As do I, call BS on your post.

but have you actually tried an actual comparison between say, Android and the iOS?

Looks at desk and see Iphone 3GS and Motorola Milestone (droid for you yanks). Fairly similar in hardware, the Milestone runs a custom ROM (Cyanogen).

The usability of Android for day to day tasks, and general "Smart Phone" abilities,

Email = Android wins on account of third party mail programs such as Touchdown which provides Exchange functionality unrivalled by any other mobile client and Gmail, which is head and shoulders above the IOS client in functionality and usability. As for POP/IMAP its dead even IMHO.

Web Browsing = Android 2.2 is much faster than IOS 4.2. In addition to this Android has the option of having flash installed if you want it, IOS does not effectively cutting itself off from a large portion of the web. Android wins here.

Calendaring, = IOS by a nose hair. Simply because connectivity to multiple calendars is easier. With Android you end up using separate programs if you don't use one connected to Gmail. Apart from that, Android has slightly more functionality in it's calendaring thanks to third party programs.

IM = Even seeing as both IOS and Android connect to the most popular IM networks.

Multi-tasking = I almost didn't add this one because it's so lopsided. Android by a lap and a half. Android has proper multitasking and a damn good scheduler. Apple's multitasking is limited to first party products, for third party applications you have "I wish it were multitasking" where the application is permitted access to a limited number of persistent API's and not permitted to make its own services, the application itself is suspended when navigated away from.

I had it crash a few times, it refuses to connect to wireless networks sometimes,

Actually, my Milestone connects to and can find networks the Iphone simply cannot. The only disadvantage Android has is a lack of authenticating proxy options in the stock ROM, on Cyanogen it's not an issue.

I've also not had a force close in months and this is using a custom ROM so I again call BS.

And the App Store

The IOS appstore has more applications, the Android Market has more variety. Only on Android can I get Bluetooth FTP, Samba file sharing programs and third party email clients.

stagnated piece of shit Google offers.

That's really balanced, which seems to be the central theme of your post.

Now for the much touted UI, they are practically the same. You have to be a retarded monkey not to be able to figure out either one. As for polish, this is entirely based on perception and bias. Android is polished enough, perfect is the enemy of done and if they spent all their time polishing the chrome on Android I'd miss out on great features like widgets.

What I dont like about Apple are two things.
1. The way Apple does business. The litigation, patent threats, vendor lock-in. Everything we deride Microsoft for doing.
2. Apple fanboys. Yes you are really that annoying.