A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
Cancer? Steve Jobs medical leave email: health vs. wealth.
Steve Jobs health questions re-emerge after email medical leave announcement to employees. Is his neuroendocrine cancer back? How's his liver? Our thoughts are with the reality-distorting CEO.
Steve Jobs, 56, has health problems again. He sent email to Apple employees yesterday, saying he's on indefinite medical leave. It was conveniently timed for while the markets were closed for MLK Day, it seems. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder if his pancreatic cancer is back, or if his new liver is failing.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention Cycle race start FAIL...
(AAPL)
Peter Sayer says:
This is the second leave of absence Jobs has taken. He did not say how long he would be away, nor why. ... He pointedly requested respect for his privacy, and provided no details of the health issues that have prompted the latest absence.
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Apple's announcement leaves key unanswered questions: ... What ails him and is it serious? How long will he be out? ... Will this prompt Jobs ... to permanently scale back his work at Apple?.
Jonny Evans is our resident pome-watcher:
Jobs has not been seen in public ... since October 20, 2010, when he introduced the MacBook Air and previewed ... Mac OS X 'Lion'. ... [The news] will inevitably spark concern his illness has returned, and ... drive discussion of Apple's succession plans.
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Many noted last week that it was Cook, not Jobs, who joined Verizon's COO, Lowell McAdam to launch the CDMA iPhone last week. ... While Jobs is away, Apple's Chief Operating Officer (COO), Tim Cook will take charge. ... This will be a big year. Apple says Jobs remains as CEO, and will, "be involved in major strategic decisions for the company."
Jason D. O'Grady quips, "In PR, timing is everything":
News of Steve Jobs second medical leave of absence (in as many years) was released while ... markets were closed in observance of the Martin Luther King day holiday. ... Apple carefully timed the release of the Jobs health news to give investors one full day to digest it and right before it announces ... its Q1 2011 financial results.
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I think that Apple could take as much as a 10 percent haircut tomorrow on the news. ... Its fundamental are rock-solid and it has a full year lead on its competition in many areas.
But John Terrett disagrees:
Steve Jobs is probably the coolest CEO on the planet ... the real deal - the visionary leader of a company that makes products millions want to buy. ... That's why Apple shares tumbled so much on European bourses ... on Monday.
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The problem is everything goes through him. Responsibility for the design, functionality and interface of all Apple products. ... Tim Cook [and] Jonathan "Jony" Ive are ... more than capable to lead. ... But few will have the star power of Steve Jobs.
Matthew Herper wishes the Monday morning doctors would shut up:
Whats the prognosis? ... Im not sure even his doctors know, so maybe the rest of us should stop trying to guess. ... He is a patient who has a very rare cancer who has already gone through a series of treatments that will affect his prognosis. When we talk about a patient like Jobs, were basically talking about Jobs and Jobs alone.
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It has now been clear for several years ... that his illness could recur. ... But because Jobs is a not just a CEO but a visionary, his presence has continued to provide lift to Apple shares. ... Its not clear how this medical leave changes things, except to remind us that -- reality distortion field or not -- even great leaders are mortal.
Meanwhile, Fake Steve bids adieu -- for now:
I hope youll pray to whatever God you believe in, and heap endless scorn and abuse on the first ... hack that dares to try snooping around to find out whats wrong. ... Anyone who does that is lower than dog **** stuck to a shoe, and I hope that when you see stories like that ... you use their comment strings to express your outrage for being the kind of scumbags who would put their own hunger for ... pageviews ahead of a mans right to privacy.
Richi Jenningsis an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com.
