June 24, 2009

Sour Apple: Steve Jobs and snow jobs

Has the high-tech icon really returned to health and his old job? Apple would like you to think so. Cringely's not so sure

Have you heard the news? Steve Jobs is back.

Well, we think it was Jobs. It might have been some other skinny middle-aged guy skulking about Apple's Cupertino campus wearing jeans and a black turtleneck. But Apple really truly deeply wants us to believe that, in yet another miracle, St. Steven is back on the ball, just a few weeks after upgrading his internal organs.

Last week's Wall Street Journal story about Jobs undergoing a liver transplant in April was followed immediately by a) a bland statement in a press release allegedly made by Jobs, and b) a few suspiciously convenient sightings of the Apple icon at the company's HQ.

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Hey, if Steve really does feel well enough to return to work just weeks after swapping out one of his more important organs, then more power to him. Let's hope he remains on top of the Apple pile for another 10 years. But I smell the fetid stench of yet another PR move designed to hide the real story about the man and his health. And that ain't right.

So far, the story has gone from "Steve's fine and it's none of your beeswax why he's so damned skinny," to "Steve's just taking a break to deal with this little hormone imbalance, nothing to see here," then "Liver transplant, what liver transplant?" and finally "Hey, Steve's back -- you may all now return to worshipping him as the Man-God he is."

[UPDATE: I've been hearing from some readers who seem to believe I wish Jobs ill. Nothing could be further from the truth. I hope he makes a full and lasting recovery. The world (and this gig) would be a far lesser place without him. I do think, however, that he's not done right by anyone by keeping his illness a secret. And I think the whole notion that Jobs must return by the end of June -- or, at least, appear to have returned -- is silly. I think he should take as long as he needs to get well. Is that more clear?]

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Phansigar 24-Jun-09 9:30am
Chris O'Brien got it wrong. Who cares if all the Apple gadget fans "invested emotionally" in Apple and Jobs? That was their choice, presumably of their own free will. But you got it right, Cringe: Jobs made himself into Apple's heart, face, and mouth. If the company disappeared but Jobs remained most of the Apple fans wouldn't notice the company was gone until the next iGadget was 18 months overdue.
DanFromPA 24-Jun-09 10:15am
For the record, I don't recall saying any of those things, preferring simply to wait and observe.
epcraig 24-Jun-09 12:33pm
Phil Lesh is still touring since his 1998 liver transplant, last reported headlining at Bonnaroo. Steve could be up and gingerly about as reported. Presuming Murdoch's Journal got it right.
Bill Snyder 24-Jun-09 12:50pm
1 reply
Don't forget: Apple is a public company. Jobs' health is material, that is, it affects, the company's business enough to move the stock price. His health should certainly be disclosed or, if he feels strongly enough about his privacy, he should resign. And like Cringe, I wish him a full recovery.
ewelch 29-Jun-09 12:58pm
Apple disclosed he was on medical leave. Did you want to see stool samples too?
RayBay 24-Jun-09 12:59pm
2 replies
Cringeley doesn't really exist any longer either... But we likely are soon to see the last of Steven Jobs... Just about nobody, no matter how rich they may be, survives both Pancreatic Cancer, and Liver Cancer... He looks as if he doesn't have much time left... He does have management talent like few others. His leadership has been important to anybody in computers or software. But I don't think he can buy miracles.
NormM 24-Jun-09 3:34pm
1 reply
@RayBay: Why do you feel a need to make stuff up? Almost everybody survives islet cell cancer, which is what Jobs had (not adenocarcinoma, which is what 96% of Pancreatic cancer patients have and which is deadly). This kind of slow-growing cancer very often reappears in the liver. The three year survival rate after liver transplantation at the Mayo Clinic is over 85%, which is hardly "no one".
Kernos 25-Jun-09 8:29am
Islet cell tumors do not result in the need for a liver transplant. One wonders what caused his liver to crash.
Kernos 25-Jun-09 8:24am
Jobs will always be with Apple  iAvatar is in the works and Steve will be the 1st fully interactive digital, personality complete AI to be created. His Avatar will be running things at Apple forever.   
rotten.apple 24-Jun-09 1:05pm
From the look of it I do beleive SteveJ has AIDS!
gzakharia 25-Jun-09 1:16am
This is the type of article that prompts one to unsubscribe from InfoWorld and that's what I just did. If you need to ask why then you don't need to know.
TheWreck 25-Jun-09 5:12pm
No less a personage than Warren Buffett thought that the idea of Apple and Jobs hiding the extent of his illness was important. As a matter of fact, in an interview he did on the subject, Buffett pointedly used the term "material fact" several times. One commentator thought that this referred to the fact that public corporations MUST report all "material" developments and that Buffett thought that the hiding of Jobs' condition was probably illegal. TheWreck
ewelch 29-Jun-09 12:56pm
Apple staff are reporting seeing him on campus and saying he looks good and seems happy. http://tinyurl.com/m5xrdj From what nether regions did you pull out these completely unfounded, ridiculous fictions?

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