Is Steve Jobs leaving Apple? The rumour mill grinds on...

Steve Jobs is leaving Apple. Not tomorrow, but probably very soon

reckons Gizmodo, the excellent gadgets blog. What has led them to this conclusion? Steve Jobs's performance at yesterday's launch of Apple notebooks was, shock horror, more about Apple than Jobs himself.

Today's event was a play in which he clearly told everyone that the company is more than himself. Since the very first minute, when he immediately sat down to let Tim Cook talk, he was saying: "Hey, look, Apple is more than Steve. These are The Guys, the Goodfellas, the A-Team. They share the same vision I have...

In the past, Steve Jobs was always the Star of the Show...It was Steve's Show from beginning to "one more thing," and there was no doubt about it.

Personally, I don't think this adds up. Maybe Jobs is taking a backseat beacuse at the last couple of Apple events, there hasn't been much to shout about. Don't get me wrong, the new iPods and Macbooks are still lovely things, but If Apple had an iPhone-type game changer up their sleeves, I'm certain Jobs would have been on stage waving pom-poms and smiling into the photographers' flashbulbs from start to finish.

And giving up as head honcho just doesn't sound like something Jobs can do. This profile of Apple from Wired - a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the company - shows that in many respects, Apple just is the Steve Jobs show.

At most companies, the red-faced, tyrannical boss is an outdated archetype, a caricature from the life of Dagwood. Not at Apple. Whereas the rest of the tech industry may motivate employees with carrots, Jobs is known as an inveterate stick man. Even the most favored employee could find themselves on the receiving end of a tirade. Insiders have a term for it: the "hero-shithead roller coaster." Says Edward Eigerman, a former Apple engineer, "More than anywhere else I've worked before or since, there's a lot of concern about being fired."

But Jobs' employees remain devoted. That's because his autocracy is balanced by his famous charisma — he can make the task of designing a power supply feel like a mission from God.

He doesn't sound like a man who could give it all up to play golf and drink pinacaladas. Maybe, as ever, we're reading way too much into these Apple events, and maybe, Apple and Jobs quite like the attention.

Comments

[Ian Kemmish]

Maybe your last quote explains why almost all Apple products since his return in 1997 have suffered from short life caused by overheating from poor power supply design! (Or cracking cases. Or laptop screens falling off. Or....)

Let's face it, if he left, we would once again have the prospect of Mac OS X being licensed to run on hardware from people who actually knew production engineering and knew how to manufacture reliable kit. Some of us can't wait....

[Capt. Colin]

If Mr. Jobs is retiring I hope he has the noble and moral behavior to deal with a problem I had with his products which have used faithfully since 1984 as I hate dirty windows. (See 'Dirty Windows-Time To Byte Into A Mac') on my website: www.navigatingtheworld.org

I had the G4 powerbook since 2001. Fantastic machine except for the power adapter/battery charger. I had three over the years, all purchased - no refunds or replacements - until the third one with its pathetic cord and attachment plug to the laptop fried the whole thing in March of this year. Although I retrieved the hard drive 25% of data including all software ($1,500 worth extra) was missing along with thousands of high quality jpegs.

I have the new (not latest) MacBook Pro since then and it is even more fantastic except for a few issues that Mr. Jobs is keenly aware off but does not want to fix or reimburse me for my previous losses. This new MacBook Pro, just released, will probably have its issues too. The fancy scroll/touchpad is doomed to failure or present significant problems unless you have the dexterity of a magician.

While I wish Mr. Jobs well in his problems related to his pancreatic issue, I have one too, it should behove him to be decent considering his staggering wealth to ensure that his loyal customers aren't shafted or new ones too. I expect the lawsuits filed here in the States re the iPhone 3G will be bothering him too as will mine to wake up his collective arrogance.