According to BBC news 24.

According to the LA TImes, Tim Cook takes over. He's the guy who has stood in while Jobs was off getting cancer treatment.

Jon

Don't like the sound of this...looks like his health has taken a downturn.

More from BBC here.

No, it doesn't sound good, does it. I feel for his family - no matter what people might think of the guy, having a loved one in that condition is never nice.

From a business perspective, it's difficult not to find the Apple story - and Jobs' central role in it - fascinating. Forget the fanboy stuff (and the haters' vitriol, which I'm sure there'll be plenty of today) but the company has never been dull.

And so Apple move onwards into a new era.
Ars coverage here: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/ ... iately.ars

This is going to be... interesting. There are very few times where a company at all the size that Apple now is has been so associated with one person and their success attributed to that one person. We've seen the experiment, now we're going to see the 'control group'. Will it turn out that Apple were driven pretty much entirely by the force of personality of that one man, or was it in fact largely a collaborative effort which he's only had a contributory role in ever since his health issues first manifested?

Jon

He has only resigned as CEO.


I hope he makes a full recovery.

Because he can't meet the duties of the job, which is highly likely due to his seemingly ongoing health issues.

Mark

It was probably because of the time involved. The other jobs can be done part time.

Hardly unsurprising, after all he's been on sick leave since January, that situation clearly couldn't go on indefinitely - maybe either Apple told him that they needed to resolve that, or maybe Tim Cook has become impatient at being the temporary stand-in guy and wanted a permanent position (whether that's going back to his old role or taking the CEO job permanently).

Guess no one really knows what's gone on apart from those at the highest level. A role like CEO of Apple must be a very stressful and demanding job, so if you're not 100% then you can't give it the attention and commitment it deserves.

He's still going to be Chairman and on the board of Directors, so his influence will still be a part of Apple - it's just that he won't be taking the day-to-day decisions, which I suspect is the reason he's stepped down from that role.

Do you think he has iAds?

I hope he makes a full recovery too.

All the news articles are like obituaries already.

As long as Jonathan Ive is still head of design, I think Apple's future looks OK. If he goes (it was reported that he wanted to return to the UK) then there could be more of a problem. At least Steve still has some influence over Apple for the time being; I hope his health lets him continue for a long time to come.

Reminded me of Finlay's post on Fb:




I wonder if any of this will be in the biography coming out in November...? It's very short notice, but perhaps they could squeeze something in?



+1