Report: Steve Jobs cuts back on instant messaging

[AppleInsider]

A story claiming to reveal Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' recent lack of computer use has reignited speculation surrounding his health and the progress of his recovery.

In a Saturday column entitled "Where's Steve?", Robert X. Cringely cites one source and declares, "Steve Jobs has stopped using his computer."

A friend of mine has for years been one of Steve Jobs' Internet chat buddies. And as such his chat client has – again for years – shown as Steve came online each day and remained there for hours and hours as you'd expect a Silicon Valley mogul to do. And it's a trend that continued well past Jobs' announcement that he was taking a six-month leave of absence to get well. But then Steve started logging-on less and less. And several weeks ago he stopped logging-on at all.

Silence.
Cringely, which is the pen name of former InfoWorld and PBS columnist Mark Stephens, concludes that anyone who "actually expects Steve Jobs to return to Apple" will care about this latest revelation. According to Cringely's bio, "The sex symbol, airplane enthusiast and adventurer continues to write about personal computers and has an active consulting business in Silicon Valley, selling his cybersoul to the highest bidder."

He claims "the best and brightest" of the Valley "talk to him all the time," providing the information he uses in his reports. Cringely is also the author of a book called Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date. Jobs was the first name listed (followed by Bill Gates and Mitch Kapor) on the back cover of the book, published in 1996, in which Cringely predicted PCs would be "obsolete" by the year 2000 and "only software would survive."

Apple watchers responding to the author's assertion – Jobs is not using a computer at all – have quickly pointed out that "not logging on to chat doesn't necessarily mean any such thing," as Fortune reported on its Apple 2.0 blog. The same entry cautioned against drawing too many conclusions, noting that Jobs could merely be "concentrating on getting better."

The majority of commenters on Cringely's own site questioned his motives and reporting, to which Cringely responded, "[Y]es, he might have changed his chat name after many years, he might have disowned my source, might have done any of a number of other things mentioned BUT HE DIDN'T. You think I don't check these things out? I've had this for 10 days and wouldn't have published on a Saturday except it took that long to confirm."

Jobs, who celebrates his 54th birthday tomorrow, has been on a leave of absence since mid-January from the company he helped create. The Mac maker's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, is leading the company in his stead.

"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," Jobs wrote in a media advisory made public on January 14. In the wake of that announcement, rumors of shareholder lawsuits surfaced while other observers expressed confidence in the Cupertino-based company's interim leadership team.

As the annual shareholders' meeting on Wednesday approaches, Apple may once again have to face questions about the one executive who could still lead the discussion despite his absence.

In today's early trading, shares of AAPL have fallen 1.44 percent.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[gmcalpin]

Oh for the love of God.

[the cool gut]

Leave the guy alone. Holy fuck!

[nace33]

Hey, AppleInsider, 12th grade called and they want their gossip crown back!

[Shaun, UK]

Maybe Steve is not logging on so he doesn't have to read shite like this report!

[BlackSummerNight]

The man is on his death bed, so forgive him if he doesn't have time to chat.

[dshel]

It figures. There is a short selling attack on the stock this morning. It is usually started after a lie or a rumor is leaked. What BS. Apple will post great earning s again this quarter. The "Shorts" have an easy time of it because Apple never defends it's stock or updates information. The Apple Board meets this week. They should do something for their real investors. Split the stock to reduce the multiple or do a buy back or dividend.

[gsteeno]

Originally Posted by BlackSummerNight

The man is on his death bed, so forgive him if he doesn't have time to chat.

Unfortunately, that's the assumption being made by the gossip mongers.

[siriusvector]

Perhaps, he should have mentioned it in his letter - that he would not be as frequent on his ichat as he used to be. It freaks the hell out of AI reporters...

[solipsism]

1) I didn't realize that Cringely was going solo when he left PBS. I thought he was retiring altogether.

2) Cringely hasn't had a viable article in years. His predictions are so far off I thought senility has set in early or he had gotten BSE. Which is why I thought he had retired altogether.

3) Not using IMs as much may mean he has gotten healthier. Instead of not sitting in bed with a Mac on his lap, he is being active; perhaps with his family. My IM usage varies in such a way.

4) Not seeing a user online could mean that they are using their other account or that they have blocked you since you're not really a friend if you are disclosing info about the frequency of your so called friend's IM usage. Perhaps Jobs got tired of this guy's loose lips.

[ZachSpear]

Originally Posted by siriusvector

Perhaps, he should have mentioned it in his letter - that he would not be as frequent on his ichat as he used to be. It freaks the hell out of AI reporters...

I understand that point of view, but on the other hand I'd have to argue it freaks the hell out of Cringely which then annoys the hell out of many reporters. I'm with the majority of you, we have no idea what Mr. Jobs is going through or what he's up to on his computer. Some say that means organizations like AI shouldn't print it at all, but the way I see it, stories like this are trying to present both sides and provide a forum where that debate can be had out. Many other outlets, right or wrong, have taken a similar approach, but they don't have the informed community that we do. Thanks for all the thoughtful comments.

And just to be clear, I'm speaking for myself here, not necessarily on behalf of AI.

[cameronj]

Originally Posted by dshel

It figures. There is a short selling attack on the stock this morning. It is usually started after a lie or a rumor is leaked. What BS. Apple will post great earning s again this quarter. The "Shorts" have an easy time of it because Apple never defends it's stock or updates information. The Apple Board meets this week. They should do something for their real investors. Split the stock to reduce the multiple or do a buy back or dividend.

Yikes, I hope you don't do your own investing...

In case you were wondering what you did wrong - splitting a stock doesn't lower any multiple or change any meaningful number.

[Johnny Mozzarella]

Maybe he finally realized iChat doesn't work.

[cameronj]

Sheesh - I'd hope he's off doing something more fun or healthy in his time off than sitting in front of a computer every day!

[Jonews50]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

A story claiming to reveal Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' recent lack of computer use has reignited speculation surrounding his health and the progress of his recovery.

In a Saturday column entitled "Where's Steve?", Robert X. Cringely cites one source and declares, "Steve Jobs has stopped using his computer."

A friend of mine has for years been one of Steve Jobs' Internet chat buddies. And as such his chat client has – again for years – shown as Steve came online each day and remained there for hours and hours as you'd expect a Silicon Valley mogul to do. And it's a trend that continued well past Jobs' announcement that he was taking a six-month leave of absence to get well. But then Steve started logging-on less and less. And several weeks ago he stopped logging-on at all.

Silence.
Cringely, which is the pen name of former InfoWorld and PBS columnist Mark Stephens, concludes that anyone who "actually expects Steve Jobs to return to Apple" will care about this latest revelation. According to Cringely's bio, "The sex symbol, airplane enthusiast and adventurer continues to write about personal computers and has an active consulting business in Silicon Valley, selling his cybersoul to the highest bidder."

He claims "the best and brightest" of the Valley "talk to him all the time," providing the information he uses in his reports. Cringely is also the author of a book called Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date. Jobs was the first name listed (followed by Bill Gates and Mitch Kapor) on the back cover of the book, published in 1996, in which Cringely predicted PCs would be "obsolete" by the year 2000 and "only software would survive."

Apple watchers responding to the author's assertion – Jobs is not using a computer at all – have quickly pointed out that "not logging on to chat doesn't necessarily mean any such thing," as Fortune reported on its Apple 2.0 blog. The same entry cautioned against drawing too many conclusions, noting that Jobs could merely be "concentrating on getting better."

The majority of commenters on Cringely's own site questioned his motives and reporting, to which Cringely responded, "[Y]es, he might have changed his chat name after many years, he might have disowned my source, might have done any of a number of other things mentioned BUT HE DIDN'T. You think I don't check these things out? I've had this for 10 days and wouldn't have published on a Saturday except it took that long to confirm."

Jobs, who celebrates his 54th birthday tomorrow, has been on a leave of absence since mid-January from the company he helped create. The Mac maker's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, is leading the company in his stead.

"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," Jobs wrote in a media advisory made public on January 14. In the wake of that announcement, rumors of shareholder lawsuits surfaced while other observers expressed confidence in the Cupertino-based company's interim leadership team.

As the annual shareholders' meeting on Wednesday approaches, Apple may once again have to face questions about the one executive who could still lead the discussion despite his absence.

In today's early trading, shares of AAPL have fallen 1.44 percent.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

Over at MacDailyNews, a commenter named "breeze" took issue with Cringely's post. He wrote:

"Cringely - you idiot, I have two friends that have received emails from Jobs over the past few weeks. This took less than 10 minutes to confirm."

Honestly AppleInsider, could we just give this gossip a rest?

[sausage&Onion]

The sky is falling

[akhomerun]

Here we go....more of this.

It's amazing to me that even stockholders are so obsessed with Steve jobs that they forget about the rest of Apple's thousands of employees. The man was instrumental in reviving Apple upon his return, but he's not essential to the company.

If Apple had competent management before Steve came back, they would have never needed him. It's not brain surgery to figure out that to sell computers at a ridiculously higher price than the competition, you have to hold yourself to ridiculous standards of style and simplicity. Apple in the 90s didn't figure out the simple concept that if you want to charge more for a product it has to be better!

The people responsible for Apple's success are all under Steve Jobs, they just needed the demanding standards of someone like Steve Jobs (and probably needed NeXt's operating system even more). And really, now that he has demonstrated to his underlings how the company needs to be run, one of his VPs can easily take over. Phil Schiller may just be the next CEO of Apple.

I mean come on he literally just finished treatment for cancer, you think he's gonna be back at 100% right away? Why the hell would he be on instant messenger if he's not doing any work at Apple right now?

[Galley]

Steve is on a scientific expedition in Antarctica and will be "off the grid" for awhile.

[Kasper]

Originally Posted by Jonews50

Honestly AppleInsider, could we just give this gossip a rest?

Sure. All your comments have been heard, guys. Our apologies.

K

[digitalclips]

Perhaps not being at his regular work on a day to day basis requires less communications ... kind the whole point of taking a few months off to rest I would have thought!

p.s. I heard a rumor that Steve Ballmer has an iPhone now and loves it.

[paxman]

Lame lame lame

I am MUCH more concerned with his daily attire. If the man has taken to wearing track pants it is sure sign he has 'given up' and is at death's door. Please, isn't there an upstanding serious investigative journalist out there who can supply photos? Track pants or not - a worthwhile subject of speculation and conjecture. WE NEED TO KNOW!

[sandau]

Maybe Steve is now exclusively on his new iChat replacement, iHologram.

[CU10]

Leave him be.

[mdriftmeyer]

Steve historically moves from answering emails consistently/chatting or whatnot when he's engrossed in projects.

[phelix_da_kat]

Come on..
I used to chat several hours a day until I got a wife!

Dude - sometimes people's lifestyle changes, thus their routine.
If Steve is taking time off work - maybe his scheduled time around a computer and ichat chanegs too. Just because you still have the same working hours.

For all you know he could be on vacation in Asia and loging at different times.. or he just hates IM on the iPhone (personally I have Palringo, its nice. But I used to have a Pearl an Treos, is not that fun)

[HyteProsector]

I agree that it stinks reading all these reports revolving around speculation, but maybe it was just the delivery at fault. Too bad AI didnt have a seperate page for more redundant/speculative type articles. Dare I say like MR "page 2"? Or something to a similar effect. Maybe it was just a bad article to start the day off with. I wonder if it would've been better recieved shuffled in the mix of midday articles.

[kjacobi]

This is irresponsible reporting. It's not fair to shareholders of the Jobs family.

[Redglittercoffin]

Cringely is such a hack.

I expect better from AppleInsider than regurgitating this kind of mindless crap. Shame on you.

[HyteProsector]

Originally Posted by Yash Keough

Can we take the story down, or at least move it off somewhere please?

Woah Woah Woah, what is this a democracy? I hate to break it to ya, but AI is a privately owned website. Whats with all this "we" stuff? Kasper's got freedom of press here. I understand that some people might not like the content (myself included) but asking someone to relinquish their First Amendment Rights is pretty ballsy there guy.

[vandil]

When you're really sick and taking a sick day, you should spend it recovering, not in front of a computer.

When you call off for 6-months, you spend a good initial time making sure people are up to speed on business matters and then let off to recover. Between his recovery and his birthday, I'm sure Steve is plenty busy.

[MacTel]

Let's stick to rumors on Apple and not an individual's personal health matters. This should not AI's type of reporting.

[Redglittercoffin]

Originally Posted by HyteProsector

Woah Woah Woah, what is this a democracy? I hate to break it to ya, but AI is a privately owned website. Whats with all this "we" stuff? Kasper's got freedom of press here. I understand that some people might not like the content (myself included) but asking someone to relinquish their First Amendment Rights is pretty ballsy there guy.

Oh please. I think the guy was just asking AI to take the article down.

I would also like to ask AI to remove the article and perhaps think twice about posting stuff based on Cringely's hallucinations in the future.

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by ZachSpear

I understand that point of view, but on the other hand I'd have to argue it freaks the hell out of Cringely which then annoys the hell out of many reporters. I'm with the majority of you, we have no idea what Mr. Jobs is going through or what he's up to on his computer. Some say that means organizations like AI shouldn't print it at all, but the way I see it, stories like this are trying to present both sides and provide a forum where that debate can be had out. Many other outlets, right or wrong, have taken a similar approach, but they don't have the informed community that we do. Thanks for all the thoughtful comments.

And just to be clear, I'm speaking for myself here, not necessarily on behalf of AI.

I understand what you are saying here, and I agree to a point, but if AppleInsider is going to reprint stuff like this, it would help to provide some background. For instance it's my impression that Mr. Cringley has been wrong more often than he is right, so the way to publish this story would be to provide some extra background on the veracity (or lack of it), vis a vis the source.

Instead, we have AppleInsider publishing Cringley's claim that he "checked it out", but nothing from them. This just reinforces Cringley, and is hardly just plain unbiased reporting. AppleInsider could also, (since they pose as journalists), do some actual background checking themselves on the base story. Presumably they also have connections like Mr. Cringley.

More and more, we see stories like this published on AppleInsider by the automated slave that are just verbatim regurgitations of other sources. Not only is there no actual fact checking going on, many of them don't even really make any sense. This is why so many cryptic but potentially interesting stories appear on some remote site and then get repeated around the world, completely unexamined. Such stories appear here for instance, and then are ramped up by a hundred or so inane comments made by people who don't understand the story, and may have no idea what they are talking about anyway. The story becomes whatever the consensus view of the inane commenters is.

This is just lazy, it isn't journalism, and has nothing to do with publishing "news," or informing anyone of anything. Because everyone want's to be *first* with the story, no one cares about, you know ... getting the actual story.

Edit: This criticism is kind of harsh in retrospect. I still think it's true, but AppleInsider is hardly alone in this respect. I think what I actually described here is the effect of blogs in general.

[FitzGerald]

So this comes from a guy who once predicted that pc's would be obsolete by the year 2000...give me a break! I don't think this guy knows anything.

I've been a pc enthusiast for almost 17 years now. When IM clients came around I was "hooked" on them, was always online and chatting with people. Nowadays I just leave it on busy and sometimes I don't even answer because I don't feel like it. Also I've actually been going out of the house more often since I started college.

This goes to say, that Steve probably has been, for example, "getting out" more often, or has been busy doing other things. When Summer comes I spend a lot less time home, I want to make it up for working hard for a long time. This is what he might just be doing! Enjoying his time off!

So leave the man alone

[John the Geek]

The Blogsphere surrounding Steve Jobs hit an all-time slimy low today when speculation of his imminent demise resurfaced again, this time simply because ol' Steve hasn't been logging on to Instant Messenger for a while.

By this account, I myself, have been dead for about two years already, since that's when my decline of Instant Messenger use began.

Sure, it could be true. But seriously. Let's just stop and let it be already.

[trs80]

I can confirm rumors. Steve has not logged onto his system in days. He is busy designing and building the new iMac and iPhone. As you all know, every product is designed, built, and manufactured by Steve and Steve alone. This is why his health is so critical.

The other employees are just a front. The do not have creative engineers or marketing people with new and innovative ideas. It is all Steve.

[hobBIT]

Man, that's exactly the idea of 'taking time off'!
To not sit on your computer for hours on end. But do something else instead. Stay in bed, go to therapy sessions, spend time doing something completely different.

If anything it proves that Steve is taking is 'off time' seriously and is indeed doing something else.

Good!

[Automaticftp]

Reality check: Mr. Jobs is done as Apple's full-time CEO. Of course Apple will not announce it, nor will Mr. Jobs, but consider the reality of what has been announced. How many Fortune 20 (or wherever Apple ranks) CEO's have come back after a six month leave of absence to address health issues?

Even if he returns, it will simply be to align the succession, after which I would hope he would remain as chairman and consultant.

[Abster2core]

Originally Posted by HyteProsector

Woah Woah Woah, what is this a democracy? I hate to break it to ya, but AI is a privately owned website. Whats with all this "we" stuff? Kasper's got freedom of press here. I understand that some people might not like the content (myself included) but asking someone to relinquish their First Amendment Rights is pretty ballsy there guy.

Asking somebody to remove something they said or printed is not in violation of their First Amendment rights. Forcing them to would be.

I would like to add my name to have the article removed. Anybody else?

[Funky Chicken]

Maybe he just has his iChat status setting on "Invisible"??