Steve Jobs Taking Medical Leave of Absence 471
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."
Wishing him well (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope that no matter what operating system or computer manufacturer you love or hate, everyone can come together and wish him well. Whether you love or hate what he's done in the industry, he's a fellow human being first, and I hope he has a speedy recovery.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Insightful)
Please extend the same sentiment when gates is not feeling well.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Funny)
I would not wish ill health on any of those people but Uwe Boll, the man has caused misery for millions of people.
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I agree. I draw the line at Uwe Boll.
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No, not Uwe Boll.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of those people are not like the others. Some have killed others to further their own goals.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Insightful)
Huh, really? I'm sorry, but malevolent dictators do not deserve the same kind of respect that CEO's, pundits, and even directors of crappy movies deserve.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Insightful)
John Donne, Meditations XVII:
I don't have to like what they do to wish them good health.
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um... fuck no. Steve Jobs is a corporate executive that competes in a market place to earn money. He has done nothing bad in this world that I'm aware of and has headed a company that has produced some great products. I am the farthest thing from an apple drone you can find, but I have no problem honoring the man.
However some of the people on the list have caused great harm, death, and spread lies that have harmed the lives of millions of people. There are people on your list who I would love to hear ar
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Insightful)
I want Osama Bin Laden to see the error of his ways and find happiness and then live a long and happy life. If that won't happen I'd really not wish for him to continue living. He's preventing thousands of others from having a long and happy life. And that overrules any worries I have for him.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Informative)
Sarcasm ===>
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\|/ <--- You
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Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Lobby globally for a stronger patent system including patents on basic medical research that increase the cost of treatments and drugs for tropical disease by factors of 10x to 1000x. Rationale: such a patent system will also protect Microsoft's monopoly through patents on its file formats, interfaces, and opponents.
2. Use your tax-deductible charity billions to 'sponsor' friendly government projects and punish those ministers who promote generic medicines, patent free zones, open source software, open standards.
3. Profit.
That's kind of the deal. I like Steve Job's because he's defined the curve of the gadgets I play with. I don't particularly like Bill Gates because he's made the world a worse and more dangerous place for my kids.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Informative)
He says he is a Christian, but everytime he quotes from the Constitution he skips the word "God".
Whoa whoa whoa. Hold the fuck on.
Please cite where the word "god" appears ANYWHERE in the constitution, other than the "Year of our Lord" boilerplate, which signifies the use of the modern calendar as a date.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Then why hasn't Palin explained why she bailed on the State of Alaska midway through her term?
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html [usconstitution.net]
I searched for "god" and got no results, "lord", got the one, just in the Year of our Lord, "religion" and got three results, two are in the Constitution and one is the outline at the top of the page.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Insightful)
Wish Jobs or Gates well?
Why? I don't know them personally. These aren't my family. I don't admire them. They're rich billionaires who've often made their money by stepping on people and they have their own family to wish them well. Jobs included.
Wishing them well would feel like stumbling around drunk yelling "I love you, man" to random strangers.
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Wishing them well would feel like stumbling around drunk yelling "I love you, man" to random strangers.
wow you're a huge db. you wouldn't wish somebody well when they're sick with cancer / liver transplant / other illness? I assume you never give any money or time to charity, because that would be benefiting people who you don't know, and only stupids would do that.
Assumptions about someone you don't know...you know what they say about assumptions. I will however tell you that when I do donate to charity, it isn't to rich billionaires.
I guess you must be a huge douche too? Almost as big as me. After all there are 7 billion people on the planet, each with their own problems, and you don't wish 99.99999% of them well.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Insightful)
Absolutely. Yet I must ask: Why should I care about this? I don't know him personally and have thus a hard time seeing the news-value in this... now if this was a stock market news site...
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Interesting)
'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 (Score:4, Interesting)
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?
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
It's because Apple's not based on product, it's based on image. If anything seems like it could even start to threaten that image, people want out before it crashes.
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If it wasn't for that meddling Apple it be the year of Linux on the desktop!
Like all warfare is based on deception, all business is based on image. You could have the best product ever but if your company has a bad business image no one will touch it.
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
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:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
MS never had a good image here. The suits and pencil pushers that actually get things purchased for business are a different story. "No one ever got fired for buying IBM" basically. /. is a tempest in a teacup when it comes to what the rest of the world likes or dislikes.
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
I have used Linux, BSD, MacOS (X) and Solaris but my home computers (laptop, gaming PC, two servers) all run Windows, because it gets things done and I haven't had a BSOD or a serious issue with it for years. Finding drivers or apps is never a problem because everyone develops for Windows first, Mac OS X second, Linux probably never or perhaps a distant third.
Being a geek most of my friends are as well and Windows is still by far the most common OS on their home PCs. One guy bought a shiny MBP and promptly installed Windows on it. Pretty much everyone who runs Linux dual-boots with Windows. So yes, when given a choice, even very computer-literate people will freely choose Windows. Because it gets things done, doesn't crash and has drivers for everything. Simple as that.
My phone runs Android, though.
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
People don't buy iPhones because Apple is cool, they buy iPhones because the iPhone is cool. Your comment doesn't make any sense.
For a huge section of the consumer market, Apple makes the *best* products. People don't spend their money on iPhones because they think Apple is cool, they spend it because they want the product Apple makes
Those products are as good as they are in large part because of Steve Job's persuit of perfection. The guy is sick. Everyone is worried that Apple will lose focus without Jobs (like it did in the past).
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People buy apple products because apple makes them seem cool. The iPhone isn't objectively better than any of the half-dozen equivalent smartphones out there. They buy it because of marketing and image. Stockholders know that. Without Jobs, the image starts to waver. My comment makes perfect sense.
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:4, Interesting)
As do I, call BS on your post.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Actually it objectively has significantly higher user satisfaction ratings then any phone on the market. It objectively has a much healthier app ecosystem than any other mobile device on the market. It is support by a much better media ecosystem (to everyone but slashdot nerds who think torrenting movies and copying to an sd card is the way to go).
It is in fact an objectively better smart phone than any other device on the market. Are there phones that may have this feature or that feature the iPhone doe
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There are a half-dozen equivalent smartphones out there now, but when the iPhone was released, it was head and shoulders above the rest, and the industry spent years catching up. Same thing with tablets; there's nothing like the iPad out now although I bet in a year or two there will be plenty.
That's why Apple's stock is tied to perceptions of Steve Jobs' health. It's not the sales now--those are Tim Cook's responsibility, and he's very very good at those. What Jobs does better than anyone is develop new pr
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
We've seen this movie before. If Jobs were to leave, and not be replaced by someone with the single-minded focus on the user experience that he has inculcated into the company, Apple would fail. Just like they almost did the last time he left.
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
It's because Apple's not based on product, it's based on image. If anything seems like it could even start to threaten that image, people want out before it crashes.
Oh please. Any rational analysis of the history of computing will lead to the conclusion that Jobs is a visionary genius. NeXT created a computer in 1988 that had features that even today's computers don't have. The graphical system was vector based (PostScript), enabling resolution independence. It had an optical drive, years before CD-r existed. It was Unix based. It utilized a middleware framework called OpenStep that allowed an unprecedented degree of platform independence. This system became the basis for OS X. Microsoft didn't even come out with Windows 3.1 until 1992, four years later. Even today, no major OS has resolution independence, and Windows 7 is definitely NOT platform independent. I can think of no other example of a leader leaving such an indelible stamp on a company.
Indeed, the contrast of Mr. Jobs leadership with the rest of corporate America lays bare the fundamental faults of the latter. Corporate America has become beholden to visionless MBA bean counters, who think they can manage a company without underlying knowledge or insight into the business they direct. They treat management as a skill independent of the underlying businesses they manage. They put forward their management principles as unchallengeable "revealed truths". Contrast Mr. Job's leadership with that of Mr. Sculley who replaced him for a time. Sculley was the president of Pepsico before he took over at Apple. What made him think that his experience managing a soft drink company gave him the ability to lead a computer company I have no idea. But his tenure was an unmitigated disaster. Sculley simply had no vision of what computers should be. He had little insight into the difficulties of coding, the importance of good design, or the future developments in information technology.
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I'd be willing to concede marketing genius.
People keep repeating that, but it doesn't make it true. Take a close look at the technical ins and outs of NeXT computers, which became the basis for OS X, and then tell me that operating system wasn't a stroke of technical genius. It came out seven years before Windows 95, and is the basis for OS X and iOS. It has been ported to numerous types of processors, and runs seamlessly. Windows doesn't have a hope in hell of doing anything like that.
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Because much it's value is based on the cult of personality that's been built up around Jobs. They make some good products and have strong market performance but their stock has been overvalued for quite some time. Beware of any stock that relies on a cult of personality for much of its value.
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Informative)
Really? Not that I am invested in AAPL, but it's got a PE of ~23. Going by Benjamin Graham's rule of thumb it needs to grow at 7.5%. What with the healthy product stream (iPads, new customer base with CMDA iPhone), that doesn't seem terribly overpriced.
Apple's PE is 15 EX CASH (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Informative)
Why is Apple's stock so prone to heavy fluctuation at the even the slightest hint of something not being perfect?
I suspect it's because it's horrendously overvalued. Apple investors get scared that the bubble will burst, and no one wants to be the last one out. When it doesn't turn out that the "correction" is actually happening, people regain their senses^H^H^H^H^H^Hgreed.
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple doesn't pay dividends, so its stock is owned by speculators, not investors. Its value is based solely on the belief that there will always be another sucker along in a minute who thinks its worth more than you paid. When you stop believing those suckers will appear, then it's time to bail.
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Apple doesn't pay dividends, so its stock is owned by speculators, not investors. Its value is based solely on the belief that there will always be another sucker along in a minute who thinks its worth more than you paid. When you stop believing those suckers will appear, then it's time to bail.
Nonsense.
Whether or not a company pays dividends has nothing to do with whether it's an investment or speculation.
There are two ways for companies to return value to their shareholders, and both are equally valid. The more traditional one is to distribute quarterly profits as dividend payments. With that method, assuming constant profits which are entirely distributed to shareholders, the value of the company remains constant, and so does the share price. In fact, for such a company, the stock price
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:4, Informative)
People remember what happened to Apple last time Steve Jobs left.
Re:Fucking stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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I hope that no matter what operating system or computer manufacturer you love or hate, everyone can come together and sell their AAPL stock. Whether you love or hate what he's done in the industry, money is money.
I'm a horrible person.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Insightful)
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I was hoping to see this post early. :-)
I wish him good luck in a recovery and that it's nothing serious, although I have a feeling he won't be back in his former position once again this time, after the cancer treatment and liver transplant. I don't think he looked to be in the same shape as after the past medical absence, and energy is exactly what a CEO needs to lead a company of this size, and at the pace of the IT industry. :-/ I unfortunately have little doubt in that this is related to his past medic
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Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I agree. Thank you.
But unfortunately, this thread will turn into yet again another opportunity for anyone who even implies indirectly anything positive about Apple or their products to be accused of Trolling and met with mind-bogglingly uncivil replies by people who can find insult where none exists merely by reading a comment which can be interpreted as a slight against the brand of computer they're typing on or the operating system upon which it runs.
I've been a happy Mac owner since 1988 and while there
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Insightful)
There are almost 7 billion people on this planet and if we were all being brutally honest that's almost 7 billion people we don't give a damn about. This isn't insightful, it's fake emotion.
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There are almost 7 billion people on this planet and if we were all being brutally honest that's almost 7 billion people we don't give a damn about. This isn't insightful, it's fake emotion.
I would have to agree. I'm not sure why people become attached to famous strangers while not caring about obscure strangers. In both cases, they are people you do not know and who don't know you, and never shall the two meet. Now, I get that sometimes we can empathize more with someone dying of lung cancer (as an exam
Re:Obscure (Score:2)
Except we do care for our quota of 10 obscure people per month. (Your quota may vary.) Usually it's the "Give him/her a chance".
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I'm not sure why people become attached to famous strangers while not caring about obscure strangers.
Cult of hero worship is about right. They either admire or wish to emulate something the person has done or some aspect of their personality that they're famous for.
It all comes down to our basic instincts when it comes to community. Human beings developed to socially cope with small communities including friends of friends and strangers we've only heard about in the 3rd person. Famous people give us someone in common to give us the feeling of being in the same community as strangers. So we act like we know
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Really? between all the victims of rape, murder and lethal accidents that occur worldwide every minute, I'm amazed that you could find enough time to write here on Slashdot between all the crying.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Everybody deserves death. Its the price for life. The idea that death is cruel or a punishment is wrong. Instead of saying he doesn't deserve death, how about we all say he deserves the great life he has lived?
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I disagree and demand that you elaborate.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Funny)
You 'demand' that I elaborate? LOL. Well, I demand that you give yourself a swirlie...
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Informative)
Not sure about 'most accounts' but how about the time He and Woz got a $5,000 payment from Atari. He told Woz it was $700, and gave him $350 as his half. Fortune described him as 'one of Silicon Valley's leading egomaniacs'. He banned all books published by Wiley from Apple stores because they dared to publish an unauthorised autobiography of him. He refused to acknowledge his daughter, who his mother initially had to raise on welfare payments.
You don't often get to be as successful in business as he has been by being a nice person.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:5, Interesting)
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]
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What objective accounts?
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People who know him but don't have an anti-Apple bias, for example 'The Woz.'
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Wozniack has made objective reports that he is a "terrible" person. Really? Terrible?
I've seen reports (and no report made on the character of another person is truly objective) he's a taskmaster, a jerk who wants things his way. I wouldn't call them terrible people. I don't see him getting accused of racism or sexual harrasment.
Being in tech support I interact with people like that all the time. No reason to wish them ill health.
Re:Wishing him well (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Severe illness survivor, remember? (Score:2)
Yeah, maybe he's just parking where he wants on the private property he (colloquially speaking) owns and operates.
And maybe he does have reason to park in a handicapped spot. Not all debilitating medical issues are obvious, and Jobs is quite private about what is, well, private. The man survived a nigh-unto-unsurvivable disease, and may have limitations you are not aware of.
Anecdote: an acquaintance stops breathing when sleeping, and is prone to narcolepsy - not a good combination. Otherwise healthy, she of
Another drives (Score:3)
No, she doesn't drive herself - which makes the appearance even more disconcerting to uninformed onlookers when a perfectly healthy driver uses a handicapped spot.
AAPL (Score:2)
AAPL fall down, go BOOM!
Actually, there might not be much effect this time. Maybe investors are getting used to this.
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Re:AAPL (Score:5, Informative)
Well this is why they announced it on a US bank holiday when no shares are trading there.
In Frankfurt, Europe meanwhile, Apple shares are already down 7%.
Looks like it's business as usual in the crazy world of Apple shares.
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It's down about 10% now in Frankfurt- This seems like too much to me. Steve's health issues are already priced into the stock.
I bet it will be down more around ~6% when the US stock opens. I'm tempted to buy some stock on the Frankfurt market.
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Agreed. It's important to note as well that he's planning on staying on as CEO during the leave, involved in strategic decisions. He's _probably_ expecting to be in pretty good shape during the leave- If he was getting another transplant or some other serious surgery I think the statement describing the leave would _probably_ be worded differently.
This does not bode well for Apple (Score:3)
I wanna be a rich man... (Score:2)
Man, it would totally suck to die as a billionaire at his age...
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I wanna be happy. We all die. Stacking up zeroes isn't making The Jobs immortal, only immoral.
I have pancreatic cancer.. (Score:4)
.. and trust me, I'd say not being a billionaire sucks more.
A billionaire not only has people to help get through each day, but there are other people to research possibilities and provide the best possible care.
However, for me, it sucks more because I don't have the money (or the time) to do all the things I want to do, to see all the things I want to see in this still very beautiful and wonderful world. Nor can I care for those nearest me in the way I want to.
I wish SJ the best and hope he recovers from whatever ails him.
It's good Tim is getting more exposure (Score:5, Interesting)
(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.
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Also, how do we know that Jobs coming back after his liver transplant isn't just to appease the stock market and that
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Yes, but the things that put Apple ahead of everyone else, like releasing a giant sized iPod touch don't necessarily take a lot of Steve Job's time, however they are things that nobody else thought of before he did.
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Probably, but the tech press doesn't love Jobs for his day-to-day operations. I don't think anyone expects Jobs to be really 100% gone unless he's deadly ill. Unless he's really so out of it that Apple must make major strategic choices without him, people will think he's still running the show.
Announced on a trading holiday.. (Score:3)
..to dampen the blow to the stock price... smart..
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It's amazing (Score:2)
Re:It's amazing (Score:5, Informative)
He had a rare type of pancreatic cancer called "Islet cell neuroendocrine tumor" which is far less deadly than most pancreatic cancer.
Sorry to throw a damper on your smug little rant, but it's not unusual at all that he would survive that.
*cough* (Score:4, Funny)
Privacy for Jobs? Maybe that's not realistic. (Score:4, Interesting)
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"except maybe Warren Buffett."
Is he the guy who invented the all-you-can-eat?
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I heard (Score:2)
Even if you hate Apple... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't use the iPhone because I don't like the control Apple exerts over it. Still, I recognize that the place smart phones are in today is due to the existence of the iPhone and without it those of us using smart phones would still be using Windows Mobile 6.5 bricks. So my relationship with Apple is both positive and negative. If we lose Steve Jobs, we will lose a driving force in the industry that will effect the quality of the electronics you buy; Apple or otherwise.
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This will cause apple stock to drop. The question is will it mean the end of innovation at apple. If not then once it is seen that apple continues to operate at the same level the stock will rebound. In that case it should be buy, buy, buy. When the panic ends and apple is still there the time to buy will be gone. In the stock world it's buy low, sell high.
Re:SELL SELL SELL (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm not sure what you're saying here; are you saying that we shouldn't wish well those who are being raped and killed? Or that we shouldn't wish well those who are rich and successful? Or that we shouldn't have news stories about significant events in the life of multinational tech companies?
Or is it simply a case of the usual "You're doing X while more important thing Y is happening, so you're a bad person"?
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He has more money than god. If a cure exists for whatever ails him, you can be sure he'll receive it.
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Tim cook streamlined Apple's supply chain and increased profit margins considerably. Although he is not a designer, he is a great choice to replace Steve Jobs. (In saying this, I obviously hope that the iPod, iPhone, iPod were not solely motivated by Steve Jobs, but by Apple's design team. If not, we as consumers are screwed)
Given all his health problems, Steve Jobs needs to retire and enjoy life a little. One of weird things is I keep reading all these articles that say Apple doesn't have anyone who can replace Jobs and Microsoft doesn't have anyone who can replace Steve Ballmer. I find that very hard to believe. But, even worse, it it's really true, they're pretty well screwed.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, Apple is not too big. And that's the problem. Apple effectively has 4 products. iPods, iPhones, iPads, and laptop/desktops. The only reason Apple continues to make money is not because of that 4th one. It's because of the first three, and only because they've convinced people that they need to continually upgrade their mp3 player or phone. If Apple fucks up on even one upgrade cycle on one of those three products, they're likely to lose a chunk of those people on the annual upgrade cycle, and the entire
Re:What this means... (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sorry, but this whole idea that Apple users have fierce brand loyalty because we are mesmerized by marketing, packaging, and image - or that we are posers - is just crap. Apple succeeds because they believe in design down to their bones - not packaging design, but systems design. Apple believes that all parts of the product should be elegant and well thought out. They don't always succeed, but they try harder than anyone else. I use Apple products because they are well designed and retain their value and usefulness over long periods of time. And, I was an advocate for Apple back when their stock was in the toilet and people like Michael Dell - who wouldn't know innovation if it bit him in the ass - were saying shut the company down.
I also take issue with Apple not being an innovator. Apple's kit is full of innovation - whether it is manufacturing techniques, changes in the direction of computing, Operating systems, design, frameworks, functionality - you name it. By the standards people like to apply to Apple, no one is innovative.
Steve Jobs has been a huge boon to the computer revolution and to people like us who love computers and what they can do. NEXT was doing stuff in the nineties that made Windows look like a joke. The reason we are all walking around with mini touch screen computers is Apple and Steve jobs. One primary reason why MS is kept in check and doesn't own the Internet with their proprietary crap browser is WebKit. Yes, WebKit was KHTML, but it was a shell of what it could be. Now it powers Google Chrome, Android, Rim, WebOS, Nokia's Symbian - hell, even Office 2011 uses it for its HTML email. As someone who loves Linux, I think Apple has given Linux space to breath and helped to create a multi-polar computing world. Besides, isn't that the idea of open source - to not reinvent the wheel and to build on things and make them better while releasing things back into the wild? That is definitely innovation. You guys can keep bashing Apple as a company for posers while the rest of the industry waits for Apple to come out with the next big idea to copy.