Is Steve Jobs seriously ill?

[clayj]

Of course people have a right to be concerned. It's not a coincidence that a lot of stupid things happened at Apple while Jobs was away. Not to mention that it's OK to be concerned when ANYONE is or may be ill.

And let's not forget that the man had CANCER. Sure, it appears to have been licked. But one of my uncles got lung cancer about 10 or 11 years ago, the likely result of 40 years of smoking... he had a third of a lung removed and chemo and he stopped smoking cold turkey, but it didn't stop the cancer from coming back 10 years later... and he passed away last summer. Another example: Mark Fields of the Carolina Panthers, who just missed a second season due to Hodgkin's Disease... he had it once, it was cured, and it came back.

If you've had cancer once, you're likely to get it again. That's just the way it works.

The best things you can do for Jobs are (1) pray (if you believe in prayer; if not, just send good thoughts his way, it can't hurt to do so) and (2) support cancer research.

 

[IJ Reilly]

It would continue running with some changes. We would still get our computers, and we would hope for the same amount of innovation, and it is a pretty sure thing that it would happen.

As for Steve, I think he is just getting older. For a guy who has done so much, now would be a time to just focus on what he loves, which for Steve that is Apple and that is why he has still done his own keynotes, even though they appear to be taking a toll on him.

What about a poll choice for "Uncertain" ?

I'd vote "uncertain."

Don't kid yourself about Apple without Steve Jobs, though. His influence on the culture of the company is probably without equal anywhere.

 

[iGary]

His influence on the culture of the company is probably without equal anywhere.

Truer words have never been typed.

 

[brepublican]

Truer words have never been typed.

Except those ones

 

[IJ Reilly]

Truer words have never been typed.

Oh sure they have, just not today.

 

[swingerofbirch]

I came here to post this exact question about whether Jobs is sick. He looked a bit thin to me at this recent presentation and still had that cough. He also was not "on fire" about any of the products, and maybe it's because Apple is making compromises in ways it never has before. Maybe the company's spun off too much for him.

Eventually he will retire. Who will take over? My personal vote at this point would be for Ives; Phil Schiller is probably the best butt boy I've ever seen, and I'm sure he's great, but I think he's a follower. Ives would do cool stuff, although you'd worry about someone like that not having the drive, being all creative.

Maybe 5 golden tickets shall be sent out to find the young person who would be willing to serve Apple without selling their secrets to nosy competitors.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Ives is an industrial designer, not a manager.

Schiller is the obvious choice at this point to succeed Jobs, but of course the decision would be made by the board. I can only hope that Steve is grooming a successor, or at least thinking about how a transition to new leadership could be made without traumatizing the company and panicking stockholders.

 

[clayj]

Not to be overly pedantic, but isn't the designer's last name "Ive" (singular)? I've seen several people say "Ives" in the past few days... methinks people are extending Jobs' terminal "s" onto Ive's name.

 

[iGary]

Not to be overly pedantic.

Better then being overly obsequious.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Not to be overly pedantic, but isn't the designer's last name "Ive" (singular)? I've seen several people say "Ives" in the past few days... methinks people are extending Jobs' terminal "s" onto Ive's name.

Pedantic or no, you're entirely correct. I know it's "Ive," but my brain f*rted responding to the comment where it was misspelled.

 

[atari1356]

Is a poll really necessary for this?

Voting on someone's health just seems in poor taste.

 

[mad jew]

Is a poll really necessary for this?

Isn't that how doctors work out whether to fix you? It's either a medical examination or a poll, I forget which...

 

[narco]

I didn't really notice anything different in the MW keynote, but it's definitely noticeable in the last event. It also could be that it was a much smaller crowd, so he really didn't have to be as energetic.

If he is sick, I'm sure a lot of the people who dislike the iPod hi-fi will probably say someone other than Steve made that product possible, he just had to introduce it. It does kind of appear that Steve didn't really want to do this keynote, and he definitely didn't seem as enthusiastic about the products either.

I've read in many places that Steve feels that Jonathan Ive is a younger version of himself. Sure, Ive is just a designer guy, but who's to say Steve isn't prepping him up on the business side? I mean, who better to learn from than Steve Jobs? It's probably better than attending college, and I'm sure Steve would agree on that one.

Fishes,
narco.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Could be. With Steve, simpatico is more important than technical expertise.

 

[swingerofbirch]

My apologies on getting Ive's name wrong. I haven't seen much of him lately. Remember in the good old days Apple would make what was essentially a super glossy infommercial for the introduction of a new product (I can remember original iPod, Albooks, white iBook, g4 iMac) and Ive would come with some beautiful bs about how organic the product was and how its form was a natural evolution of its function?

Anyhow, I miss that. I love being shmoozed, especially by someone with an accent.