Steve Jobs taking leave from Apple due to complex health issues - Page 5

Its been a long time since I have posted on this board but as soon as I read the story I felt I needed to post my well wishes. However, after reading some of the post on this board it reminds me why I have not posted in a long time. There are some really insensitive people on this board. I've said enough... Steve, get well.

Why are you dumping on him?

The part where he says


As a PRO I would have to agree - while I think Steve did do great things, his dumping on the PRO market and focusing on Johnny come lately and their iMac, the barking dogs and puppys,crying babies in the Apple store, is quite accurate.

Look. You have a Macbook BEFORE the new NVIDIA GPU..

It SUCKED for games - but you could RUN motion and PRO applications on it, google BAREFEATS and look at the story, so what does APPLE do? They come out with a newer ON board GMA that was CRAPPY, effected NO ONE but the PRO and basically told the PRO market, SORRY, if you want to run PRO apps you have to buy a PRO MACHINE.

Same thing with PRESENT day. Why do you think there is NO FIREWIRE? It has nothing to do with dying technology (also 4 X faster than USB) but everything to do with making sure the LESS THAN ONE PERCENT OF THE MARKET BUY INTO PRO HARDWARE, OVERPRICED RAM, OVERPRICED GRAPHIC cards.

This is the sort of stuff that drives a lot of us crazy.

A lot of PRO sumers don't get it - especially if you remember the days of NON IPHONE and how tech GENIUS used to make $80K, now they make $35L, sales specialist were told NOT TO APPROACH customers, now they are forced to SELL APPLE CARE and .MAC, I MEAN ME, it's going to pot and its going to get worse in time. The more bow wow wow, PC switchers that come on board, the more demanding they will be (and can't say I blame them) to release product cycles more in line with PC's

Oh and for the second time..

GET WELL Steve.

Best wishes for a full recovery Steve...from my Apple Core to yours.

Go play in the kiddie pool, dude. And read some of my other posts, and you'll see that I know what I'm doing.

Some people are just cold that's all -

The irony though is we have all this stock talk and I bark and bark about Jobs pulling the wool over the pro market eyes time and time again, and trust me, I have a legit beef as why go after and make sure the pro user can't have a cheap solution as a back up? Doesn't he know we still buy high end?

The other part of the story is, I bet know one here remembers when Apple was nearly 20% of the market. My how times have changed.

Thing was, the 20% included NO PC users, these days, PC users make up much more of the majority except in Hollywood where we still use Mac's - business deployment will also come when Snow comes out - but again, Jobs always said that wasn't his market.

I believe that you are the user interviewed by the Onion, who said:

"If it's shiny and made by Apple, I'll buy it."

The fanatics in this thread who practically proclaim that they would lay down their lives for Steve Jobs and the incredible fanboishness of defending Apple at all costs really turn off other users from Apple.

Meh, I'll talk about things the way I see fit. If you're so bloody sensitive, stop reading, some things are only for grownups. Also try to come up with your own insults instead of copying mine.

If he dies this year, I give Apple 2 years max to have some serious plans in place to keep up the momentum.

That said, Steve, I wish only peace for you in deciding whether to continue on our plane of existence or if you decide it is time to transcend to another reality. We are all but mere mortals. Only on this current plane of existence. Transcendence awaits, I hope your decision is true and peaceful.

This is the umpteenth post where your use of CAPS is totally out of control. Try turning off the CAPS and maybe we'll actually read your ranting and raving. You have some points but I can't actually get them because of all the PRO this and PRO that.

Well, Steve has given us "mere mortals" indeed technologies and experiences far beyond an elite group of "pros". I, personally, am thankful for that. How many people could really have sat down in front of a nice fully-loaded PowerMac G5? Fast forward a few years, and the incredible experience of a MacBook Aluminium is available for many people. True empowerment and affordability and improvement in quality of life through technology. Fuck the bourgeoisie and their elitist toys.

Do people realise the impact of the iPhone and Mac on the developing world? How it has given hope and progress, strength and empowerment to individuals in countries not quite up to Western standards?

I'm not saying Apple has cured hunger and poverty, but an individual in a developing country that can afford a PC, can afford a Mac, and this individual, in the face of all his/her nation's problems, can at least sit down and enjoy the Mac experience. Happiness and fulfilment? If this is what the so-called Kool Aid brings, why would one not want to take a sip?

Thanks for this post!

> I am sure you have heard the news regarding Jobs taking Medical leave, I hope
> and pray that it is a tactic to drive the stock down by him to then buy the
> stock cheaper.

I dont know about that... I don't know even if the Hedge Fund Cowboys know about that... Looks like the GAMES are starting again

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AAPL

Then I read posts here and saw this:

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

Views: 2,402,011 - that almost 2.5 MILLION VIEWS!!!

Obviously, Steve Jobs is an average Joe [The Plumber]!!!

What bothers me is that some folks here have showed the ugliness that is foreign to the whole Mac Community!

Mac users are a unique fraternity centered around Mac OS, Apple Products, plus 3rd party stuff. Nobody forced them to be that way! And, if that's not enough, they offer help to each other, and to switchers, and not because they are on a commission from Apple, but just because that's part of the "Mac Culture"!!! I don't know too many like that, at least not in Computer Industry!

Then there are Apple haters...

It's as if Jobs did something really bad to them personally. If so, then they should have disclosed it -- if they were fired, etc., but how likely are we to see that kind of disclosure? It's just a bunch of sick folks hiding behind User ID's, badmouthing others!

If you can't wish a man speedy recovery, don't say anything! That would be the right thing to do. The exception would be Hitler's and such. But, I am not aware of Jobs having killed millions, or maybe even one human!

He killed Newton, but that's a device, not a Last Name!

Some of them like to call Mac folks Fan Boys!

Funny -- how many Fan Boys does Microsoft, Dell, HP etc. have? Did you notice that I didn't name any of those companies present or former CEO's?

Steve Jobs is a father and a husband!

As to AAPL, this drop is a favor to the bargain hunters..., and those with great timing! And of course Hedge Fund Cowboys will have a party too.

I would have much rather preferred to Steve Jobs up there in DC with Oprah, talking about weight gain, as they gaze at Obama [a Mac User] taking Oath next week!

http://www.peteryang.com/pages/a4/obama.html

I caught that in OWC's Newsletter:
http://macsales.com/newsletter/11-15...Deals.html#Fun

Too bad I don't have the $$ to BUY AAPL...

I am not a broker with a Crystal Ball, but if I was, that's what I'd tell my clients, minus all the disclaimers, which include such classics as DEATH and TAXES!!!

2 guys named Steve started an incredible company, which will go on long after they are gone! It's my hope to see Steve unveiling 3rd Generation iPhone right before or after Snow Leopard!

MOST IMPORTANT:

Get Well, Steve Jobs, ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Millions of Apple users around the world are sending you their love, prayers etc!

Peace!

Oh GAG. I'm a huge fan of Apple and Steve, but please spare us the sickeningly overwrought drivel. There are ways of getting a sentiment across without sounding like some miserable TV drama scriptwriter. Show the man some honest respect.

(Unless that was fantastically subtle satire? If so... bravo.)

Are you on some sort of medication? You sound like you should be.

If you can't see the parallel I'm trying to draw there is little hope for you.

Let me give you a clue, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman.


Sorry I have no idea who Larry Kudrow is nor have I ever watched CNBC in my life, and besides the election coverage immediately following the election I do not get my news from ANY US news sources.


Hey I'm only seeing whats immediately in front of my face. What you choose to let your brain comprehend is up to you. In the past couple years here is what I have seen.

Positives
They hit a grand slam with the iphone. They took the basic concept of a smartphone and integrated it with the most refined portable media player using a super simplistic interface that even someones grandma can navigate. And they sole a tone of them.

They have built some very nice looking notebooks and have added a TON of new customers to their base.

Steve did a wonderful job turning around the company and getting it to where it is today, but has seriously lost touch with "his" customers recently. You can't just keep trying to get new customers without taking care of your current customers along the way.


Negatives
"Us" the Apple customers have always been willing to pay the "Apple tax", we are willing to pay more for a product that works more fluidly, has less problems, is a little more pleasing aesthetically, and holds a higher resale value. BUT, increasingly, and alarmingly so, its for inferior hardware.

From the OLD cinema displays that were prices 2-3x more than other companies and had much worse specs. To the axing of a matte screen offering for their pro-consumers. The deletion of firewire was a slap in the face to all the people who spent their money on equipment and helped Apple push firewire for so many years, to the horrible screens on the 20" imacs. Oh yea how about the screens on the new macbooks, the quality is honestly the worse I have ever seen on ANY notebook in the last 3 years and I'm not referring to the glossiness. My $300 Dell Mini screen crushes it, while letting my play as much video as I can shake a stick at without a problem, not so with the $1,700 Air. The battery life is also better, AND user replaceable. Oh yeah and it runs OS X flawlessly.

The iphone, the current "king" of all cell phones while being amazingly simplistic is seriously hampered by lacking even the most common features found today on most $50 cell phones.

The point is Apple quit listening to what their customer want. Instead deciding they know whats best for their customers.

All my information comes directly from what I read in dozens of Tech blogs and Tech forums even the MOST kool-aid drinking one, this one. I swear some people here, ALOT of people here would follow Steve Jobs into the pit of hell, on some David Koresh, Heavens Gate type shit. Apple "people" are looking more and more like Scientology people everyday.

It's funny as I goto a a heavily influenced "Mac" school and some of the professors like to ask the students why they prefer Osx or Windows at the beginning of a new semester and point out the pros and cons, I swear some of the professors are probably posters on this board. Some of the answers are funny, but a couple I hear all the time are, while the student may like OSx, they don't buy Apple products as they don't want to appear (a) Gay or (b) a Douchebag.

Perceptions are what run the world, and the "value" of what you are getting when buying Apple is getting lower and lower in a lot of peoples perceptions.

Apple is not a hardware company, nor are they a software company, they are a marketing company and they are damn good at it.

That's what drives me nuts too. It's like they went from enabling our visions to dictating it and how we will compute like Steve wants us to.

I've stuck with Apple simply because their products have been superior enough to justify the occasional restrictions and higher price. (surprise surprise Steve Jobs the billionaire doesn't seem to understand why people might want a cheaper machine, especially in a recession(

But between Windows 7 (and the plummeting price of PCs while Apples get MORE expensive in a recession--not to mention get their specs updated once or twice a year instead of constantly) and the Palm Pre (which just might happily give us everything Steve decided we didn't need, and hey he was wrong)...I don't know if Apple can really justify pulling all this crap anymore.

Is it a coincidence that Apple finally starts approving more App Store apps the day Steve goes on medical leave?

Well, yes. But it's symbolically appropriate nonetheless.

There's a lot of insensitive comments being allowed here by a few internet tough guys. I wonder would you say some of these comments to his face or family?

If ever there was a time to start looking a little closer at memberships then this is it.

Get well soon Steve!!

Uhm, Jim Henson (Muppet inventor) died of the flu. A big bad flu. The only relevance this has is that if Jim had taken time off to treat his illness, he would still be alive today. SJ is taking time off. Good for SJ!

I wish Steve good health.
He is one of the founding fathers of the pc industry and for good and bad he is a unique man.
Although Apple will be ok without him, I will sure miss his product announcements ...

If you were a huge fan of Apple, you would recognize the quote.

I do, and that's why I roll my eyes when people quibble over whether Apple has gained a percentage point or so in the low single figures.

However, anecdotally, I am constantly meeting new switchers or people who have come back or considering the next upgrade will be to a Mac.

So things seem to be on the up, just there keeps niggling in the back of my mind things are not what they seem. Apple is ignoring the Netbook market at its peril, my sparkle-arkely iMac has broken down on me twice in the 1st 6 months and I see very little innovation on the horizon.

Snow Leopard will be good but that is it. The Mac Mini was never what it could have been, the Mac Pro is way expensive and doesn't have a decent priced monitor to go with it, the laptops look like just about everything else on the market and there is nothing to fill the gaps, even the very obvious ones.

I hope that Steve Jobs' absence is taken not as a negative but as positive. An opportunity to taste the forbidden fruit and boldly innovate in areas Steve said no to, but in practice I think everyone will sit back and get on with tasks in hand not knowing whether the Great Leader will be back and put the kibosh on anything he didn't start.

In other words I see Apple being in Limbo at a very dangerous time, economically and technologically.

Uh.. This is what alot of you people just dont get. The fanatics in this thread who would lay down their lives for Steve Jobs are alot of the same fanatics that have worked for the company and provide such innovative products, service and more because they believed in there leaders vision. The last 8 years is a great example of that. The US is one of the greatest places in the world, with alot of great people. But.... you take those great people, put a crappy leader in front of them look what happens.

Steve Jobs does not make Ipods. Nor does he sell computers. His character and vision lead the people that do it, thats what being a CEO and leading a company is about.

For the person who Mentioned Jim Henson. Jim died the vision was lost. Now we have crappy muppets, and vibrating Elmos.

I hope steve returns to health.

After recent apple press releases and press speculation its is Steve Jobs has desided to hand the rains to Apple's Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook and he will be in charge until Steve Jobs' hopefully returns this summer


A copy of the letter send out to 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


This news has caused AAPL shares to be down $10 in the hours after this annoncement



Please see my earlier post regarding Steves Health http://tinyurl.com/7cyqz8



Has Steves illness come at a time when they need him there to manage the economical and financial diffucualties everyone is facing?

Here, here! His son is just a waste of space and should go back to being a chartered accountant or whatever he did for thrills. Whatever Jim had it wasn't passed down in the genes nor the memes.

Companies who are very much centred on one strong father figure take a long time to prepare the successors but in this case Time is an issue. I would not like to be the next CEO of Apple because he will be blamed for every misfortune that will crop up from now on.


I am sure that the Cook/Ives team is more than capable of leading Apple to a bright future but nowadays perception is everything and I fear for the small shareholders. Apple shares will fall for a while and then rebound until SJ demise, then they will sink.

I second the opinion Mr. Jobs is Apple. Sure, he is not the only (may be, not at all) who generates ideas there. But remaining reasonably conservative is really worth perpetual attention and efforts. Otherwise, you're in the band speculating "zune - no zune" publicly and endlessly...

Soignez-vous bien, M. Jobs! En espérant vous revoir bientôt ayant la Pêche Ã* la tête de la meilleure boîte du monde!

No personal attacks please

I thought AI of all forums would be immune to blatantly obvious "hurr durr lol ur all fanbois" trolls, but guess not. Even MacRumors learnt to ignore them.

I didn't read the whole thread so if this has been mentioned already, I apologize. Regardless of Job's health outlook for the long term, the big challenge at Apple is going to be teamwork among some very capable individuals. What makes a great organization is leadership that can direct people who otherwise would prefer to be running their own show. Apple has some of those kinds of people who have been working for Jobs. Can Apple with Jobs in the far background still have that teamwork or will the top management structure devolve with serious power plays? I think that's the issue Wall Street will be watching most closely.

Many here seem to not realize that if we talk about a second cancer onset, then this may be the end. It is a human life people; the rich and the poor are not equally treated before this fatal illness, but they equally end. Please keep this in mind before talking about stock and money.

Delurk.

I knew this news would have some people salivating like dogs while others were more
normal and would treat it like the business news it is.

I hope Steve gets well and if I were him I'd concentrate on solely that.

He has every advantage, at this point, so I'm hoping he'll make it.

If not, remember they have Jonathan Ive as a designer who has a pretty good idea
of what Steve likes.

That's just one advantage they have.

(Good grief, have I only posted ONE message here in four years?)

Im glad you are not my doctor. Every seasoned investor does asset allocation.

At the heart of Apple is Steve Jobs. The company nearly died without him in the early 90's. It probably will die again if he is unable to return.

Steve Jobs is the only one that truly understands what Apple is all about. Its his gift. He has the unique ability to feel the pulse of both the Mac community (i.e., Apple fanboys) and the larger technology community.

I don't think anyone else at Apple (or outside Apple) has this gift. You can't break apart Steve into pieces and say that piece is covered now by someone else... You just can't.

When did the Macintosh hold such a high percentage? Or are you going back to the Apple II days?

I wish the very best for Steve Jobs.

I think he is an impressive and astute man, but I know he can't walk on water. He is a 'visionary', but has his vision always been for the best? For me the magic of owning a Mac was lost once HyperCard was dropped as a program free with Macs. I believe that was done on his watch. Also, I understand it took a great deal of convincing by other visionaries to convince Steve about the potential of the MP3 market and the iPod. So, it's not just Steve, there are others at Apple who have made Steve into a visionary, Steve has been the face of the vision.

I understand that most of the top 50 companies in the USA in 1900 didn't exist by 1950. Life will go on after Steve, even if he lives to be 80, though Apple may or may not be around when Steve is 80.

There are different forms of pancreatic cancer, and by all reports, Jobs didn't have the kind you are writing about.

How wrong can you get!

Have you been anywhere in the "developing world"? Apple is practically non-existent and basically ignores the occupants. They don't have the readies, simple as that.

People buy what they can afford and have serviced and in these countries it is cheap clones.

Louis Vuitton has done an equally great job on the 3rd world (Ruling Elite).

If it weren't for the rest of the post I'd think you were taking a massive rise out of us.

From the late 1980's till the mid 1990's. It took a real dive when Windows 95 came out.

Our local Apple office closed down and everything went into full retreat. Apple abandoned the government market (very big back then) and even alienated the education market.

The only ones who stood by Apple through thick and thin was the publishing industry. Even there many diverted to PCs running Indesign when that became viable and after Apple had forced one too many hardware/software switches on them.

Steve Jobs' reward to the print and publishing industry, since he came back, has been to sideline it and regularly screw up one or other of its key requirements.

Define ''many'' or do you mean the rest of your ilk who troll on the net?