Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/08/24Steve-Jobs-Resigns-as-CEO-of-Apple.html

I have full confidence in Apple going forward, but I'm not confident about Steve's health. I suspected we might see something like this happen this fall and it's too eerily close to the release of his authorized biography.

Steve's already beaten the odds for pancreatic cancer survival, but I'm not sure how much longer he can keep going. That's what concerns me the most about this announcement, the implications one may infer regarding his health.

I do hope this isn't a sign of his declining health. Really, though, from a professional standpoint, what mountains does Steve have left to climb? He's already engineered the most amazing, improbable corporate resurrection in history, creating the world's most valuable company in the process.

Even if his health were fine, wouldn't now be a great time to pass on the baton and slip into a less hands-on role as chairman?

He's a control freak.

Need I say more?

Yeah, I'm not saying it's in his nature to let go of the reins, but purely from a legacy insurance standpoint, it's a good time to go out on top.

Certainly, there's no doubt that His Steveness radically influenced Apple. While other PC vendors primarily saw themselves as integrators of available technologies, Apple saw itself as an innovator and they continue to redesign anything and everything to achieve their goals. Sometimes, this led in stupid directions (e.g., proprietary five-sided screw heads) and sometimes brilliant (e.g., the MagSafe connector).

Presumably, His Steveness leaves behind a huge stamp on Apple's culture that will impact how the company designs products for years to come. What I imagine will be missing, in the shorter term, is His Steveness's prowess at negotiating big deals. Nonetheless, Apple now has such a commanding market presence that they have a lot more power to drive the agenda. They'll do fine.

I imagine that Jobs would rather do nothing more than keep running Apple. I believe he's said as much, and all the public discussions are treating his stepping down as equivalent to his passing away. He's not dead yet. Maybe he'll have something really interesting planned as a last hurrah. Maybe something charitable. Maybe something outrageous. We'll see.

Good writeup by Andy Ihnatko
http://www.suntimes.com/business/7262635...ear-future.html

His new headquarters seems to fit the bill.