Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence from Apple due to health reasons
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 14th 2009 4:39PM
posted Jan 14th 2009 4:39PM
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.
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
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 honestly comes as quite a surprise, especially given that Jobs just recently issued that note which seemed to be aimed at quelling fears of this exact situation bubbling up. In that letter -- sent just last week -- Jobs stated that a hormone imbalance was to cause for a recent noticeable weight loss, but that the ailment was being treated in a "relatively simple and straightforward" manner. This clearly calls that info out, and raises a number of questions about whether or not Apple and Jobs knew there was something more serious happening. Of course, this story puts the latest exclamation mark in a sentence strewn with flare-ups of news over Jobs' health which began with his gaunt appearance at last year's WWDC. Though Jobs battled pancreatic cancer in 2004, as far as we know he has been free of the disease since a complicated surgery known as the "whipple procedure," and this latest statement makes no connection otherwise.
One note of interest is that this isn't the first time Tim Cook has taken the reins at Apple. He held the spot in 2004 while Jobs was treated for and recovered from the aforementioned cancer.
Whatever the current case may be, here's hoping Jobs has a speedy recovery -- though what Apple's future looks like after this is anyone's guess.
Here's a quick little gallery of Steve Jobs' progression over the past three WWDCs:
oh boy...
TUAW has the letter..
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/01/14/steve-jobs-takes-medical-leave-of-absence-until-june/
Johan, you're an idiot. You'd think (well, YOU wouldn't) that people may have some sort of candor when talking about someone's health problems. Instead of trying to tear someone down, perhaps you should instead offer support, or better yet, not say anything. You are probably not even cognizant (look it up) of the fact that he had a rare form of cancer a few years back that he was told he would never recover from. Now he has recovered, but obviously has some other health scare and we don't need people like you being such a jerk about it.
I HOPE he gets better.
I need him to reinvent that car stereo, the television and my socks.
Now they're going to have to call Woz back from his harem for these six months.
@Johan S
Please have some respect. Regardless of whether you like Apple or not, making a sarcastic remark like that is a little shameful.
On another side note, I hope it's nothing serious, but for some reason i saw something like this coming.
@Johan S: Banned. Don't be a dick about people's health.
And you're on thin ice, Flashpoint.
Flash, you got highly ranked once before for saying that, don't push your luck...
regardless of your OS of choice, we all need him, his vision and products have turned MS on its head and has provided us all with a better computing environment...
I wish him well and hope that he has a speedy and relaxed recovery...take your time Steve
He's been looking pretty bad. I don't like apple much, but I wish him the best!
Poor guy. I hope it gets better, regardless.
@Flashpoint
He's already done every one of those things with iPod, iTV, and Nike.
@Nilay
I thought it was amusing, all things considered. =C
I think people are over reacting over Johan S's comment, but then again it is probably targeted at those people in the first place. It seems to be directed at the people that over react with any Jobs and even Apple news, not making fun of his health.
I also find this news interesting, especially with the recent rumors buzzing around about the very subject. I have a feeling the news about his health is not recent, but that is what they are saying to cover up their previous statements.
Johan's comment made me laugh, as did Flashpoint's. I can see why you would ban Johan but why put Flashpoint on thin ice? His comment wasn't offensive as far as I'm concerned...
I wonder if anyone would make such a fuss if Olli-Pekka Kalashnikov died...
Hello people! Jobs has beaten cancer once and I genuinely hope he get's better, but I fear that the cancer has returned. That would be the worst case scenario, although it looks to be a very real possibility. =(
*Agrees with everyone who reckons Johan S is a douchebag*
As a Windows user, XBOX player, AND Iphone/ipod owner.. i'm neutral in saying this. From ANY point of view, its NOT nice to laugh at people being sick.
Lets just hope Karma is real after all.....
Also... @ Flashpoint... good post, you made me laugh :)
@ ArticFox,
He was not banned for making fun of Apple.
He was making fun of a person's health condition.
Theres a huge difference.
Were not dealing with companies right now, were dealing with a human life.
@Johan
Look man, just ignore everybody that is freaking out about the comment that you just made. It seems that everybody is too stupid to realize that you were speaking not about Steve Jobs, but the media that always blows everything out of proportion when news has anything to do with him. (Not to mention the fact that he clearly wants people to stay out of his personal life, made very clear by his letters.) Johan was simply trying to illustrate the pathetic general public that invades "important people's" lives...
To Paul Chapel:
Yes Steve Jobs bought Pixar, but Pixar (selling high end imaging computers) was a flop as Jobs intended it (pretty much as all of his non-Apple projects were). It wasn't until it was failing that it started pushing towards making movies. In fact if you look at the history of Pixar, its really John Lasseter who was initially just making demos to show off the hardware who really made Pixar what it was.
Wtf ?
Johan S.'s Comment did not deserve a ban unless the person who banned him is a total fanboy who does not understand sarcasm . Now go ahead , ban me too ,because i"m not coming back here.
I don't think Johan was being a dick about his health so much as he was being a dick towards people who jump the gun and assume the worst instead of trying to look at things in a logical way. Like the stock market people. When they heard Steve was sick, they sold tons of shares, assuming he was about to leave the company due to health reasons. Plummeted the stock a large number of points.
That said... I wish Steve the best...
@Paul Chapel
Ladies and Gentlemen, Paul Chapel. Zune Tang's Alter Ego
@ Nilay
Let jerks be jerks. Banning people and then calling them a "dick" is not a nice thing to do.
Don't be that guy.
FYI the original offensive post was removed, the one that is still up is not why he was banned.
TUAW or not, this just proves that the rumors from anonboard.com were true all along.
unless you have it shut up i feel better now then 20 years ago but you can't stop thinking about it 7 days a week for over 2 years it never leaves your mind never never never never never never never never#####
Is he going to die before they release the iMed? That would have saved his life...
Man...
He's one of my 2 favorite celebrities and now he's sick.
(Come on Michael Jackson.... world tour...world tour...world tour....!!!)
Hope Steve gets better. Very innovative man.
Wow... didn't see that one coming...
Me neither. I think it has to do with too little Microsoft in his diet and too much Apple's in his salads.
yeah thats because im saving restore points
don't know why you didn't. i am more shocked that he didn't just go on leave when he was forced to admit to the nosy ones in the media that he had a problem. heck when I saw that note, I figured he was on leave. hell I figured it was so when he wasn't doing the keynote at Macworld.
what is interesting to note is that Steve will still be a player in major decisions. sounds to me like he'll be at home resting up (or perhaps in a hospital for the first few weeks) and ichatting daily with the boys at the office to keep up with what's going on. no biggie.
certainly not...
You're probably right lucas. I bet he was on leave and just told the Press that last week so it wouldnt effect CES.
@Kevin: does apple even attend CES?
I did! BOOYA JOBS!
OMG say it's not true!!
(This is not directed to the man, just to the site)
say it aint' so paul !
It is no surprise, but I still said, "wow."
I never thought it would get so serious... and so fast.
This sure came out of nowhere..!
that's concerning...
I believe you spelled the second word wrongly...
I believe you spelt 'spelt' as 'spelled'
just saw it on fox news. Television beat yall on tech news. shocked the hell out of me.
Fox News is still on television?
#1 in amount of viewers among cable news stations.
They have better news anchors.(don't really care for their opinion columnists shows- IE: Bill O', H&C, ect..) CNN's are like zombies, and MSNBC doesn't know the difference between news anchor and commentator. Cavuto is talking non-stop about this story right now.
Dont want to turn this into a political thing... back on topic.
Well, if it came from fox news then I wouldn't be so sure about it's legitimacy. I mean seriously, fox news. That's like asking your grandma if apple is coming out with a new mac mini anytime soon. Not a good idea.
Oh this story broke on Fox News. Then it must NOT be true.
"Dont want to turn this into a political thing"....but you have an anti Obama avatar. Duh!
Fox News is like a Craigslist hooker, not real pretty or true.
News flash. All TV broadcast news is complete and utter bullshit. It's not about informing, it's about shaping an agenda and selling advertising. Only mind numbed robots get anything other than the weather from tv news, and that is usually wrong too. "Hey Ted, it is raining where you are?"
daren, it seems that some of these guys are so into change (and don't even start talking about Biden's ideas for information [read, internet] control) that they forget that we wouldn't want change if it wasn't for all the urgings of the liberal media. "Barry" Obama was created by them, won because of them, and will be an EPIC FAIL in spite of all his media backing.
@ wildman_91
And Bush was NOT an EPIC fail? Didn't Fox Noise shape his agenda for the last 8 years?
Oh...OK.
Darens anti-obama avatar is an eipc political fail
haxor, he was an epic fail in the eyes of the liberal media.
i would have hated to have al gore or even kerry at the helm for the past eight/four years (respectively).
sure bush made mistakes. who doesn't?
even steve jobs did. lol
What I am saying:
Best wishes
What I am thinking:
There goes my stock value.....
very humane of you
no joke.
it's sad really. I mean I"m sure Steve is a great guy and he has certainly done so much. but Apple is not just Steve Jobs. for the stock prices to rise and drop by whether he took a dump after breakfast is just wrong. and I think he's been trying to say that for a while. first with the comments about being disturbed that the press is so insistent on knowing his private business and also with pulling others on the stage either literally or virtually so show the world the other brains in the machine.
Apple's stock value should rise and fall by their products. not by one man who has been turned by the media into a rock god unfairly.
and I think that that is what Johan was basically trying to say with some humor earlier. too bad some of you have no sense of humor.
Humor is highly overrated. Not at all like banhammers.
@lucas
Well you have blogs, the MSM, and fanboys to thank for that. They turned him into some sort of god to be worshiped, and through that nonsense made Apple 1000000% him and him alone.
If he's done, they will have a massive task to try to pretend that Apple was more than just him.
ca'nt wait to see waht happens to the value of stocks
I thought the same thing, then I went and checked only to realize it's after the closing bell already.
Tomorrow/the coming days'll be interesting...
Get well soon!
down 6.5 % after hours, after dropping 2.7% today.
Although technically I am a pc ... I wish Steve to get well very soon.
Yeah, PC users, dont try to play the game of Apple fanboys when it's news about Gates or Balmer. Show em that we are above their level of sleeze.
No one deserves poor health.
You know for damn sure if this was announced about Balmer all the Applers would be saying GOOD RIDDANCE HES AN EVIL EVIL MAN, when Apple currently has considerably more ethically questionable business practices than Microsoft has in a long long time.
I also think its quite silly that Apple/Jobs have not announced his successor when he retires/whatever so people can get used to the idea for a few years.
Ditto.
Everyone who reads this site should be concerned about Steve's health and wish him well. While you may have issues with some of the Apple fanbois who post here, Steve and Apple have pushed the state of the industry forward as much or more than anybody else, and his absence will be missed. And regardless, I hope he recovers from his problems whether he returns to work or not. The guy has certainly earned a break.
I'm a Human Being, and as such, I hope he gets better soon..
....as an Ubuntu user, however....
Ah, well, I take that back. I hope to see more innovation from him in the future, and no one gets anywhere without /some/ competition.
"You know for damn sure if this was announced about Balmer all the Applers would be saying GOOD RIDDANCE HES AN EVIL EVIL MAN"
No, we don't really know that. But by using some deductive logic, we know how you feel now.
@ fred: Way to go, you managed to be an Apple hater jerk (as is your forte) while pretending to be humane. Well done!
@fred, you say that like the MS fanboys, or the Sony fanboys, or the "insert brand" fanboys aren't just as bad. A true fanboy of any type is myopic and IMO a moron. Just because someone appreciates the products of one company does not necessarily mean they are a fan boy. Anyone that would wish illnes or worse on anyone because of their fanboyishness is a loser and a poor excuse for a human being. Personally I can't stand Ballmer for example, but I would never wish him illness or death.
Any btw, my extreme dislike of Vista does not make me and Apple fanboy, or a Microsoft hater, it is possible to actually like products from multiple competing companies, without wishing their various leaders dead and dislike a specific product while still liking the company overall. The anonymity of the Internet artificially expands the size of a lot of little boys balls - some of the shit I've read here I know I would never here from some of these losers in person. Read this thread and you''l see what I mean.
I'm a PC. And I criticize Apple's culture. I don't like mindless fanboyism, except when it's coming from me.
Steve Jobs is something of a hero of mine, ever since I started learning about his approaches to high personal and business standards and his famous reality distortion field. Sure, we can bash the hardware, the software, the fans and the culture of Apple, and we certainly will always take shots of the mythos surrounding SJ, but we will respect him.
Yeah, I hear ya. I'm pretty much a confirmed Microsoftie, but I honestly view Steve Jobs as the great visionary of the personal computer business.
The man has an extraordinary sense of design and ergonomics, and that is reflected in the design ethic of Apple's products. Even if he didn't actually develop the innovations himself, in many cases he was the first to recognize something significant and bring it to market. The Lisa very nearly killed the company back in the early 80s, but he still believed that the GUI was the future, and bet the farm on the Mac.
Some view the nEXt as a failure, but I see it more as the groundwork for OS X. Just really, really early groundwork.
The Newton was the butt of jokes for years, but now Apple has the success of the iPhone to show for its early innovation. I think they get the last laugh.
However responsible Jobs has been for creative development at Pixar, that studio has produced some outstanding work (MONSTERS, INC. and THE INCREDIBLES both rank high among my all-time favorite films of any kind, not just animation). Surely as the CEO he deserves credit for at least establishing a culture that led to cutting-edge technology employed.so remarkably well in the service of storytelling.
I realize this sounds like a eulogy, and Steve is very much still with us. But there's a frighteningly enigmatic quality to his illness, and the circumstances surrounding his decision not to speak at MacWorld leave me feeling very unsettled. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
My best to Steve, his family, and everyone at Apple. This is sad news in the tech community.
Well..At least they're announcing something. I know Engadget loves commenting on rumors of Jobs' health as much as watching paint dry. It's so much easier when they're up front.
Perhaps the lack of really significant announcements at Macworld is related. Jobs and other decision makers at Apple will have known about his health and planned his leave before Macworld. I suspect that the rumours are true and that there are some major new Apple products about ready to launch, such as a Mac Mini or a nano iPhone, but they've kept the launch back for a few months to give Apple some good PR show that the company can still produce buzz around new products in Jobs absence. I wish him well.
P.S. I'm not an apple fanboi or user.
watch the stock dump tomorrow
Dunn dunn dunnnnnnnnn!
Mabey because he is the CEO of one of the biggest companies in technology, and many of today's Apple products exist because of him?
Wish he'll be okay... :)
Obviously he will not be OK. Judging on the past history he does not have a good doctor. If he did have a good doctor he wouldn't have gotten cancer in the first place. Sorry guys, unless he gets proper medical care this is going to end very badly.
maybe because a leave of absence means he's really sick?
Dude he didn't die. He's just taking a leave of absence.
Introducing third party browsers (more like sad little third party browser mods) to the App Store just caused too much of a midichlorian imbalance.
So much for the mac guy not getting viruses........
serious... I hope he gets better.
@John:
Very weak joke lol
Uh, like Apple or not, a man so closely tied to a company's success (one that holds billions of dollars and thousands of shareholders) taking a leave for health reasons is a big deal.
no, i believe it was MICROSOFT that gave so much after he was removed. Specifically, $50M.
Developing? where is your flashing light?
Best wishes for Mr. Jobs, I hope he returns, better than ever.
and now Apples stock starts to decline
Markets closed.
Stock is getting hammered in extended trading (down 8 points)
Yecsh! I can only wish the best to him and his family. I thought the hormone deficiency seemed a bit off.
Watch the stock plummit....
Watch you learn how to spell.
WE LOVE YOU, STEVE!
Get well soon...
Liars. This was handled badly.
Good thing I sold that ticking time bomb of a stock. The last key note was all I needed to see(that and his wacky lifestyle habits).
"In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health,"
This is a crock because now he will only be in the limelite. This as we know is the universal dream for those who wish to seem.
Are you using this comment thread as a sketchpad for your ideas or something?
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme
The real relation... The underlying theme!