Steve Jobs decided to take a six month MC after just slightly more than a week ago where he announced his no-show at Macworld. and wrote this to the Apple employees:
Team,
I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.
In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.
I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.
I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.
Steve
Again I think Steve Jobs needs to get Dr Gregory House and his merry men (and women) to do a full differential diagnosis-what-did-it thing to sort out his condition. But not every illness is as clear cut as a, uhm, clear cut. Doctors do make mistakes. SJ’s doctors might have made a wrong diagnosis and that’s why he said that his health issues are “more complex than he originally thought”. Does that constitute a betrayal of fans’ trust and faith in SJ and Apple?
On a slightly more serious note, its part sickening and amazing how some analyst can start jumping on the bandwagon and put on a doctor’s scrub and speculate on SJ’s health – eg. Analyst think SJ has cancer by looking at photos or SJ maybe facing surgery to remove pancreas – Really?!
I’m no financial analyst but with such reports, its no wonder investors are spooked and share prices dipped when the email from SJ was reported.
People should start to realise that Apple is NOT Steve Jobs and there are other capable people in Apple who can run the company as well or even better than SJ. He would have taken lessons from the past when he left Apple (twice) to have selected the best people he can have in case he can’t return. The people in Apple would surely have made plans for that.
Look, SJ is trying to leave his medical condition out of Apple, which should be the case. He obviously feels that he will return to Apple again after his MC runs out in June. We just have to leave it as that, and wait for Apple to move on and prepare for the next special event, with or without SJ.
In the mean time, get well soon. We know Apple is in good hands.
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