And he's back, folks. Six months after Steve Jobs
took a medical leave from Apple due to health reasons, the company has announced that he's back on the job, working a "few days a week" on the Apple campus and from home the remainder. Of course, we'd been hearing of
Steve's continual involvement in "key aspects" of Apple's business for a while now, so this seems like more of a rubber stamp on the status quo than a major change, but now that it's official we're sure the questions from shareholders and other interested parties regarding Steve's health will only grow louder and more insistent -- especially given the news of his liver transplant earlier this year. We'll see how Apple decides to handle the situation when the time comes -- until then, we're just thankful that he's returned and is doing well.
posted Jun 29th 2009 2:01PM
yay!
In related news, Jobs reported that his first on-site bowel movement since his return "went surprisingly well". It's reported he attributes this success to a high fiber diet and patience on the pot.
Welcome back Jobsie...now please add a camera to the iPod Touch!
Thanks pal.
And don't forget, I need those TPS reports first thing. mmmmmm, 'kay?
Watch out Michael, here I come!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbk7DgSzEdw
Yah for you, I bet people who he actually work with are *:(*
Steve is in the hizzy. Welcome back, your Majesty. Now all is right in the good ship Apple.
@ xcrunk
You just reminded me of that funny ESPN commercial where a football player tackles an office employee and screams: "You forgot to put a cover on that TPS report!"
Wow, amazing how much crap is stored in my brain. I just wish I could replace all that crap with some usuful stuff...
Terry Tate was the greatest Office Linebacker to ever play the game.
I don't think he really ever left. He was probably video conferencing every day.
Aside from the time when he was getting a new major organ transplanted obviously.
Are you trying to call Steve Jobs a cam whore?
Huzzah
I guess the whole "One Apple a day keeps the doctor away" works, kind of?
I see what you did thar.
anybody who fights cancer and comes back ... even part time ... completely deserves a huzzah. Congrats. Now keep moving and make everybody else work a little harder to stay competitive. It's all good.
re: iChat
Yea, of course he was. So now he never really left hmmm? So now him coming back is not a big deal, right? Cool.
Cuz I seem to remember a whole bunch of BS about how "wow, Apple seems to be doing great without Steve. I guess they don't really need him after all"
Wake up, idiots. Apple puts iChat webcams on all its laptops. Anyone who thinks the head of the company wasn't Conferencing in on a regular basis is out to lunch. Its 2009. Just because he was on a 'break' doesn't mean he wasn't running shit.
THIS
IS GREAT NEWS!
C-C-C-Combo breaker!!!!!!
There is no combo to break.
Well not anymore, it got broken!
I wonder if he's really really thin, or really really fat. Or, if he's just average.
I wonder what his preference on blue or green is!
@ jordan turpentine Currently it's blue. It used to be green but as we can see with the change from the green iTunes icon to the now current blue iTunes icon it changed a while ago.
Great maybe Apple will launch a phone under Windows Mobile 7 later this year. After all WinMo remains the best business solution hitherto.
Windows Mobile Sucks.
"Windows Mobile Sucks."
Way to go, Steve - you just mobilized the Redmond Engadget Apple-Hating Commenter Horde. I hear them crawling out of their holes even now...
"After all WinMo remains the best business solution hitherto."
Hitherto and forthwith, mine eyes have rested upon yon most wondrous operating system.
Woah. Try not to post content like that.
Well Apple DOES use Windows Mobile devices quite extensively in their own enterprise, specifically the Apple Store. I wonder if they use them elsewhere?
Apple being totalitarian on only them being allowed to manufacture anything running the OSXMobile platform is pretty limited.
How many tens of millions of Windows Mobile devices (not necessarily phones) are sold each year because specialty companies take them and make them ruggedized and suitable for work in mining, underwater, etc etc locations.
Big opporitunity.
As Redmond Engadget Apple-Hating Commenter Horde member number one, I'd like to declare hooray for Steve. May He have mercy on the maker of the new shuffle's interface.
Good to hear he's back to work. Hopefully we get more innovation with his return.
In unrelated news...is Engadget gonna get around to reporting this: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/06/29/microsoft-to-oems-cut-off-free-vista-to-windows-7-upgrades-at-2/
I'm surprised it's not on the front page by now.
I'm just mostly waiting to see what he says when Phil tells him they now call the 13" aluminum MacBook a "Pro" model.
...as long as it isn't "innovation" like the 3G iPod Shuffle. What were they thinking with that?
.......what are you making a point about for your post-comment?
"I'm just mostly waiting to see what he says when Phil tells him they now call the 13" aluminum MacBook a "Pro" model."
You seriously believe he didn't know about it...?
Yeah, why do you think his liver failed in the first place?
Welcome back Steve! Let's get that anti-glare option on the 15" MBP now.
Agreed! And on all other products too.
Liver bought from your iphone sales.......... I bet it even has the apple logo on it.....
Need to buy a new liver? There's an app for that.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Thats funny!!! LOLZ
how many tasteless and classless comments can we get in 1 thread?
And your Big Mac purchase buys the weed for the cashier in a different state. What's your point?
"Filed under: Misc. Gadgets" - Steve Jobs is a miscellaneous gadget?
Not as many as if this had been Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates (even though he's not technically leading MS now anyway.)
Wow, this was supposed to be in response to Excelsium above. It even said "replying to Hackettman" before I posted.
nice.
Cheers to Jobs' health!!!
Ouch. Did he kick your dog?
This new liver I bought is great, except that the corporation that I bought it from still has 100% of the say on what I can and can't filter through it...
I'm just glad he's fine, especially with the recent barrage of celebs dying.
that's sad when the CEO of a company qualifies as a celebrity. Then again, so is obama.
@Brian: With the way the news/blogs are scrutinizing Steve Jobs lately (vs other CEOs that are truly corrupt and taking taxpayers money away), then yeah, once can say he's a celebrity now.
There are many "celebrities" who have done nothing notable, not news.
Stay classy, canARSEland. Staaaaaaaaay classy...
So how much can i buy the iLiver for, i heard they are being produced in Tennessee for a few Million dollars each, or you can go with the Donate a Wing to a Hospital plan.
Woow..great that Steve is back...just wish him a good health..
Whoopie........I bet the sky is more blue, the grass greener, the birds sing better now that Steve (I paid good money to get in the front of the line for a liver) Jobs is back at the helm. For what he paid, he'll have to come out with a Apple iCanOpener that everyone MUST have, just to pay for the liver.
Lord help Apple is Steve ever does disappear.
I pray he doesn't...but honestly. If Steve leaves. Apple will be no more.
Can't wait til that happens.
Now...that's just wrong.
I'll never wish death upon anyone.
But it's just a sad fact...Steve is seriously Apple now.
If he goes...then Apple is no more. Everything that is keeping Apple together is from the brain of Jobs.
You seriously think Apple would collapse without Steve Jobs? Seriously? You do realize Apple is a *company* full of brilliant designers and thinkers, right?
I'd hate to see Steve go, but the upside might be a little less nuttiness over the control of its products, resulting in more mass-market appeal (though hopefully not *too* mass-market).
I too would fear a return to the FUBAR product lineup that existed before Jobs' return, but hopefully those dark days are forever behind us, Jobs or not.
Actually...if you do your Apple history homework...
Even when Jobs was not at the helm...when Bill Gates offered to put Apple in contact with many manufacturers to spread the current Apple OS...they turned Bill down and stuck to keeping it in house.
Also while Jobs was gone...it so Apple hit rock bottom, where Microsoft (or you can just say Bill Gates) bought $150 million worth of non-voting stock to give them a boost.
When Jobs stepped in...he brought the iMac, iPod, iPhone...iTunes.
It is Jobs that single handedly saved Apple.
If you look at stocks...every time Jobs was away and it was reported he was coming back...shares rose. When they was debunked, shares dropped.
Everyone knows that Jobs is truly the genius that makes everything run at Apple.
When he's not there...you get lackluster performance and upgrades.
@ iDavey:
Seriously, can we drop the ridiculous chestnut about Microsoft saving Apple with $150 million? This is a key talking point of the Winbot Horde and it's absurd. The $150 million was a legal settlement, not a bailout. Microsoft no more saved Apple (a multi-billion-dollar company, even when things looked bad) with $150 million than I could save GM by sending them a check for $50.
The Winbots love to think Apple owes them a debt of gratitude, but it's nothing more than a fantasy.
Oh, and the iMac was already under development before Steve Jobs' return. Steve did not "bring it."
@ Quix
Please.........try not to call names at anybody.
What...do you REALLY believe it was a settlement? Pfft.
Please do tell, what was this lawsuit for?
And if this was for a settlement. Why does it explicitly state they bought into non voting shares?? =\
No one said they owed them anything. But that is what started the chain reaction of Jobs getting back into Apple.
So yeah. I don't know where you read YOUR info from. But that sounds like a bunch of Apple biased reporting.
No one is stating Apple owes Windows. Nobody is saying they single-handedly brought Apple back.
But at that point and time...Apple WAS at the bottom. And need a substantial contribution to keep them going.
So please...calm down.
And no Winbot here. I'm actually Pro-Google. I prefer OS X over Windows. But facts are facts.
@ idavey / Quix
Is it possible you may both be correct in some form or fashion?
"Microsoft had 150million dollars worth of NON voting shares in Apple back in 1997. The deal was done to give Apple some breathing space on Steve's return rather than to "bail" them out since it involved an agreement between the two companies to allow the "sharing" of certain software codes and allowed for the development of IE for Mac and Office for Mac while Apple developed Safari for Mac - it avoided having the two companies suing each other."
Calling AOL website admin....
Anybody home ?
Ever heard of Firefox ? Your webpage doesn't render in FF 3.5 at all. HELLOOOOOO!!!!!
I'm reading your comment on 3.5 running on Win7 what's the problem ?
no wonder the iphone 3GS has the same look.. steve wasnt around to redesign it.. hah
So he got his liver, how about using that mountain of cash that Apple has made out of us to give us.
- A magsafe that lasts more than 14 months
- Plastic macbooks that don't crack
-iPods that don't scratch
-Cheap(er) macbooks & iMacs/Mac Minis
- that touchscreen macbook mini everyone has been talking about for the last 5 years.
- A copy of OSX I can buy and install on my PC
Unibody plastic, is that possible? :).
haha good luck with that, you'd have more luck jumping onto the moon, from inside your house.
I notice you didn't ask for unicorns and a billion dollars, why not? I mean if you're going to ask for unrealistic things like "iPods that don't scratch" (made out of some kind of theoretical material that hasn't been invented yet I'm guessing?) and OS X for PCs which would completely undermine the majority of Apple's revenue, you might as well ask for other equally ridiculous things.
Also, generalizing and exaggerating issues with specific products like magsafe adapters isn't helping you make your point. All I have to do is show you one that has lasted for more than 14 months to completely invalidate everything you said, and I have a number of them right here.
Actually...I know quite a few people that would buy OS X if it were available on Windows.
I know I'd be front and center.
"I know quite a few people that would buy OS X if it were available on Windows."
Um, care to explain?
"Introducing OS X Ultimate Windows Platinum Professional 2010 Edition!
;P
Who said anything about combing the platforms.
Do they combine Windows OS in order to make it available on Macs??
It would be Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Simple as that.
You'd probably need a program similar to Boot Camp to run it...but basically be the same process turned backwards...
Windows have proven that you don't need hardware sales to rake in money. Licensing and pure software sales can push you to the top.
I direct you to Windows 90% market share.
No matter what the ability. People like choice. Being able to choose what your laptop looks like...what it does.
Some people want a heavy duty laptop...some want a light and simple laptop.
Windows gives that.
Apple gives you one choice to rule them all...with different screen sizes. :|
Apple would stand to make major money if they made their OS open to all hardware.
@zak
Scratch resistant iPod?
Pretty easy, just cover it with diamondfilm. Less exotix than it sounds, and cheaper.
Or choose harder plastic...
iDavey - You don't get it. You use Microsoft as an example of surviving on software sales, then say that Windows has 90% of the market, but then fail to link those two things together. The Mac OS doesn't have 90% of the market, and Apple is a HARDWARE company. Without Mac sales Apple would not be able to support themselves, it's that simple. If they had 90% market share, that would be different.
In case you hadn't noticed, Apple gives you the OS for free when you buy a Mac. How much money do you think they make on OS X sales alone? Your reasoning is completely backwards. Apple would not make money without hardware sales, they would LOSE money. I don't know where you people keep getting this idea that if OS X were commercially available for PCs that everybody in the world would buy it.
You said it yourself - 90% of the market is on Windows. Why would they switch to the Mac OS? The answer is that the vast majority of people wouldn't.
Well I'm just going by the statements of Mac OS X being the "superior" OS. And graphically superior on top of that.
I mean...i truly love OS X. But I just won't get it because it gives me no choice in hardware.
Seriously, its an absolute medical travesty that he got a liver. Essentially, he took a liver from a patient that could have actually had a medical benefit from it (they can last for decades in the right patient). Don't kid yourselves, pancreatic cancer is no joke and getting a liver for this disease is absolute quackery (I am a physician at a major academic center, and I have metastatic cancer to the liver also). Hope you are prepared to sell your Apple stock as soon as it peaks from the news he is back, cause it won't last. Doesn't matter if he had the "good kind" of pancreatic cancer. Buying your way onto a transplant list highlights the fact that our medical system benefits only the rich. Good thing for him the Michael Jackson press stole the headlines, because there was a huge rumbling in the medical community expressing outrage at how he subverted the transplant process.
So your anti-capitalist, rich people always taken away the attention of a lot of the best medical professionals and facilities, not news.
Official statement from Methodist University Hospital (as opposed to some random poster's opinion in the comments section of a gadgets blog):
"He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available."
http://www.methodisthealth.org/static/methodist/doc/Jobs-media-statement.pdf
(PDF)
Actually it's been in the news quite a bit, with plenty of doctors saying it's common practice for people with the means to get on multiple lists. There's nothing against it, and you still have to wait in line.. you just wait in multiple lines.
Are you saying in your professional opinion (at least based on the limited knowledge we have) that he'll die in a year or two? Seems there are plenty of doctors who disagree.
First off, no one knows when anyone will die. Many patients who are given a 5 month prognosis, based on their disease, survive for many more months and even years. Why this is such a crime is that there is absolutely no data to support prolongation of life through transplantation with advanced pancreatic cancer (he had a high MELD score because he was so sick, not because he would receive the most benefit from a liver). However, there are mountains of data supporting liver transplantation and extensive prolongation of life with other disease conditions (primary liver cancer, ESLD from hepatitis or alcohol or ductal disease, etc.). He may get a small benefit in survival, but likely not even close to the benefit that a more qualified (based on disease, not sickness) patient would have. By the way, do you think that Methodist University would report anything other than a strict adherence to the rules of transplant conduct? If they didn't, they would get their program shut down immediately. It happens all the time. Knowing Steve's treatment of his vast array of medical advisors (and I do, very well), he will do whatever he wants anyways, regardless of whether it is in the best interest of his care. I agree with android comments of the poster below that given his track record (and Apple's demands), he could very well be a brain in a jar barking out orders in a few years.
"First off, no one knows when anyone will die."
Shows how much you know,
If you make a deal with a shinigami to trade half of your REMAINING lifespan for the demon eyes, you'll know exactly how much time any human being has left to live (including their name) just by looking at them.
@Geoff
"Buying your way onto a transplant list highlights the fact that our medical system benefits only the rich."
You think rich people don't make sacrifice and earn themself there? Lots of people were depended on him, I am not saying he is having any advanced over other people on the waiting list, but I wouldn't complain if he did.
With this news....why is apple stock down today?
The market does not like uncertainties, Jobs adds an element of uncertainty.
Im glad steve Jobs is doing better that is great news.
I think apple threw away a great opportunity to prove something. Steve Jobs is seen as linked to apple, in the eyes of the public he IS apple. any news about his health comes with a massive hit to Apple's stock. while he was officially out whether he still worked unofficially or not apple should have announced some new product or something innovative to get consumers excited about Apple without Steve jobs.
I forget how long he was out for but all I can think of as far as apple anouncements are the Iphone 3GS which is no innovation at all just a speed boost for the iphone 3G with a couple features that people have been begging for for the past 3 years, along with snow leapard which most of the features were announced by Steve Jobs a year ago. and the rebranding of the titanium Macbook line into the Macbook pro line
they should have showed us that without Steve the Company is still going to be the same company it has been since 2001 coming up with products that people cant get enough of and never done growing.
if they come out with any new product (apple tablet, iTV, imicrowave, inetbook, ikitchen rack, ithing, isphere) anything new rather than just a small upgrade it will be attributed once again to Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs will not live forever, and with what apple has done during his absence I dont think many stock holders will stick around once Steve is gone.
Hopefully Jobs is back to announce (with Verizon) the CDMA version of the iPhone. http://www.thestandard.com/predictions/iphone-verizon-announced-june-30-2009
Well I guess we can all dream.
Apple is secretly testing out their new iLiver on him. If he survives we'll see this sold along iMacs and iPhones in late 2010 and Apple will continue their process of transforming him into an android one organ at a time.
Awesome how we cater to our celebs. Steve got his replacement body part within no time by moving to a house in Tenn. that he only planned on living in until he got his liver/spleen/(insert body part here). Meanwhile hundreds of little kids wait on Organ donor list around the country, I guess money talks and those little kids bullshit walks right Apple?
That is truly sickening...
Yeah, and Bill Gates doesn't live in a $150 million house while millions live in cardboard boxes around the world.
Spare us your faux indignation. If it weren't Apple/Steve Jobs, you wouldn't give this a second thought.
Yeah...because comparing someone living their life to someone taking a life is fair =\
Did you think that one out?
The difference is that Bill isn't TAKING someone's home.
Jobs (if this thing is true, cause it could just be bad publicity) is taking someone's life by skipping the whole process of waiting.
But as I said...only if this is true. I really hope it isn't. I hold such respect for Jobs. This would ruin my view of him...
He isn't skipping anything. See the comment and link above by Ignacio as to why.