Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO (Official Letter) | Hacker News Reader

Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO (Official Letter)

blogs.wsj.com

641 pointshunterowens65 comments

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

This makes it sound like it does have to do with his health unfortunately, and not that he just feels that it's the right time to do it. (like Bill Gates did with Microsoft)

On another note, even though in reality it's not just for the Board but, as put in the letter, for "the Apple community", it feels odd to imagine that he would need to write a formal letter of resignation.

Interestingly, he still seems interested in serving on the board of directors. This would make me think he is just tired of being CEO and it this play doesn't have to do with his health.

No one really 'beats' pancreatic cancer.

http://www.pancreatic.org/site/c.htJYJ8MPIwE/b.891917/k.5123...

As cancer survivors tend to say, the only way you know if you've beaten cancer is when you die of something else.

His was a rare variant though, a neuroendocrine tumor, which can be treated surgically at times.

He does not have pancreatic cancer, (if he had, it would have been too sad and he would not have seen iPad). It is some other neoplasia that happens in Pancreas.

Silicon Valley is what it is today because of Steve Jobs.

Thank you Steve for inspiring all of us. Get well Steve.

Let's not go crazy now. Silicon Valley is what it is because of all the people you haven't heard about, that were willing to try something crazy in order to do something great.

And failed.

And tried again anyway.

and most of them were inspired by Steve.

Well, the hip ones, at least.

As the commercial goes: "Here’s to the crazy ones!"

Another famous formal resignation letter that you wouldn't think actually had to be written: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/nixon.ht...

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in square holes. The ones who see things differently.

Are you talking about the sort of people Apple likes to litigate against?

He is referring to the Apple Ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USn5t5nQWU8

I very much doubt that Apple "likes" to litigate. I doubt that anyone likes that except for those whose job it is.

That ad gets me every time.

"Beyond the products, beyond the profits, Jobs' greater gift was to inspire untold numbers of current & future entrepreneurs to be the next Steve Jobs" - Hunter Walk

$76 billion dollars in the bank.

If Apple had announced they were going to spend it all to make Steve well again, would would have protested?

Somewhere in here is a lesson on the price of immortality.

I find your thought very interesting, care to elaborate?

It is currently not for sell.

No amount of riches would have saved the life of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. At the time we didn't have the medical technology to treat hemophilia. Likewise, if the technology existed to make Steve Jobs healthy, it would have been used by now.

$76 billion dollars can buy a lot of R&D time.

I'm grateful that Steve managed to sell America on tablets and smart phones after so many failed attempts by others.

But as someone who likes to take things apart and tinker, I've haven't been a big fan of Apple in recent years.

Fuck all those WSJ assholes with their "SELL SELL SELL" comments.

Are they shorting AAPL?

It appears that way. 5% drop already.

Then the dumb asses are going to lose their shorts. (And really, I wrote that with no pun intended, I swear).

Looks like a good time to pick up some Apple stock after the idiots are done selling. Sept annoucements and Xmas quarter sales. HP's annoucements should help all the other PC maker's numbers in the 4th Qtr.

Doubtful theyd loose much money shortly APPL

Typically you use a straddle so you only loose the put/call premiums if the price doesnt move very much.

If the price moves, up or down, past the strikes run theyd make money.

But a smart shorters downside is determined The moment they enter into a trade.

The WSJ comment community is horrible. It seems to be made of up of unemployed Gordon Gekko wannabes, without the smarts.

The market will fuck them just fine. Give it a week or two.

Exactly. Given that Apple has performed well while Jobs was out on medical leave for significant parts of the last three years, it seems as though Apple can do well without him at the helm. And building an organization that can survive after the leader departs is a real accomplishment.

Actually, I'm all for all the "SELL SELL SELL" doomsayers. It will give me a chance to buy more AAPL at a better price :)

Never thought I could be so saddened by a Big Corp. CEO's resignation.

The way he worded his reasoning, makes it sounds like a health issue. I honestly hope that this is not the case.

It's unfortunate but I don't think there can be any other reason. It takes a lot to leave behind one of the most important things you've done in your life.

A true pioneer of the computing industry - farewell.

His Standford graduation talk, always inspiring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

I really, and I mean REALLY, hope that his biography coming out on November 21 this year and his resignation today have nothing to do with his health.

In any way, thank you very much Steve, I guess you can leave your company quite happy and satisfied. :)

The Walt Disney of technology. I will miss him. Get well Steve.

The true test of Steve's legacy will be whether Apple can continue in the image he molded for it well beyond his departure. Great CEO's are felt for a long time after they leave.

It will have to change. There's a certain amount of "Steveness" that just can't be learned or absorbed.

I expect Apple's aggressiveness, not to lessen, but to even out a bit.

That's a nice sentiment, but I think Steve Jobs has already done more than enough to establish himself as the Greatest Business Leader of All Time. No hyperbole, I mean that quite literally and seriously.

who knew that he would take that LDAP bug so seriously?

I'll be interested to see if 10 years from now Apple has stayed true in hardware quality or if they sink to EMachines-like quality levels.

Why would they do that? I doubt Jobs is the only person who understands why Apple has been successful.

It's true that the first time Steve Jobs left Apple, it didn't take long for things to go badly for the company, but I feel that this time around (that is, since 1997 when he came back as CEO), Steve Jobs surrounded himself with a great team, making sure that this wouldn't happen again. The fact that Tim Cook is taking over is a good example of that: someone from inside Apple who has been around and key to Apple's success for many years.

I'm sure that all the people at the top are very conscious of his legacy and would most likely often think "what would Steve do?".

Things were going downhill before Steve left the first time. This is a very different scenario where they're at the top of their game.

True. To be honest, I know of that part of Apple's history from what I've read years after the facts. I still have the impression that, though it wasn't going great when he left, his leaving accelerated the descent.

But my main point is that I feel that it was an important lesson for Steve Jobs. In the 80s, he had picked an experienced CEO that didn't know anything about Apple. The current team is all about Apple and I would think Steve Jobs learned that it's more beneficial to groom internal people to take the helm.

A large part of Apple's success is the NeXT heritage in the form of NextStep that was the sapling that has grown into Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and now Lion.

It's not like everyone but Steve has been yearning to make cheap, crappy knock-off versions of their own products. He's surrounded himself with a team that matches his 'vision'. I don't expect a lot of change.

Jony Ive is still there right? Look at how he's progressed from the toilet seat portable, to the Pismos, to the Luxo iMac, to the white iMac, to the unibodies.

Sure Steve was there, praising and berating, but I doubt Steve himself would have come up with even this aluminum slab keyboard I'm typing on right now, though I'm sure he loved it when Ive and his team brought it in.

Apple has likely had long enough to assemble people that share the vision, that Apple design should evolve towards ever greater things. The iPhone was a huge lesson, that even now, and it's always now, there's room to shake something up with better design, vision and software.

Steve Jobs is leaving at a good time. Apple is the best company in the world. I hope he has his health and can enjoy being with his family and taking a backseat role with Apple.

Enjoy the ride Steve. Thanks for being such an inspiration.

I certainly hope this doesn't mean Steve's health is declining, but rather that he and Apple feel the time is right to make a smooth transition towards assigning Tim Cook as the new CEO. It definitely feels like Steve is sincere in his belief that now is the right time for him to step down. I just hope he still has the capacity to creatively inspire Apple in his new role as Chairman as much as he always has.

Whatever happens next, this is the end of a great era for Apple.

Quite the opposite. It is only just the beginning...

Jobs is an era himself, the moment he leaves Apple defines the end of that era, no matter if the years coming turn out to be better for the company.

The end of one era doesn't preclude there being another great era

I think the biggest thing is that everyone in Apple has a question they can ask themselves, "What would Steve Jobs do?". And if they can honestly answer the question and take decisions based on that, Apple with its lead and its teams and its products will stay ahead for a while to come. [cross posted from another thread]

If he looks back on his company career, he will definitely feel satisfied. 4 products (mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad) that not only changed the world but also became multi-billion dollar businesses. Not to mention countless other products (iTunes, App Store, Safari, Final Cut Pro, Apple ][ etc. :)

Everyone will remember the industry pioneer, the man who saved a giant corporation, and the man who revolutionized consumer electronics.

How many people will remember the guy who ran a software company with under 100 employees, who flew around the country hard-selling small engineering teams on his developer tools? At any time, he could have retired himself to pasture. But he never did.

You know how the news people run the wonderful stories about people's lives AFTER they are gone? Well I sure wish they'd do it while they are still around.

As much as I am not an Apple (or Jobs) fan, I still recognize great achievement when I see it.

Best wishes to him and his family.

One silver lining to this: he's going out on top.

He never did strike me as a bottom.

Steve really has a deep-seated need to one-up HP.

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