Well that's a surprise...
"I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June."
[From Apple Media Advisory]
Maybe it's a sensible decision as well by Jobs - if your health is not right then who the hell cares about the next iPhone?
Having said that this news does make my previous assessment of Job's reason for not doing the keynote a little bit shaky.
Lets break this down into the bare facts:
1. Jobs is sick.
2. Just over a week ago, he thought he was well enough to continue throughout the year while receiving treatment.
3. The board of Apple has supported both last weeks statement and todays - indicating that they believe Job's health is fixable. To believe anything else and let Job's remain as CEO could mean they are not doing the jobs and open them up to legal action.
4. Jobs has been on holidays since the Holiday season started and is now on medical leave - this will make 6 months or more off. This is a long time to recover - breaking your neck and back in several places and having surgery to put plates and bolts in doesn't take this long. The length of the recovery period indicates a serious illness.
That's as far as I'm going - lets hope that he gets better, as you would for anyone else that is ill.
The fact is the world and Apple will continue along is merry course with or without Steve Jobs at the helm. Apple has a solid product line, a growing market share when nearly every other personal computer company has a shrinking market share, is the fastest growing smart phone share in the market, has the #1 music sales channel in the US across all channels and to top it all off growing profits when most of it's competitors are lucky to make any headway.
No doubt this will cause APPL to drop a few $$$ but if I had some spare cash right now I'd be cashing in on the drop in Apple's stock price.
I've been described as a lost technocrat or a wondering luddite, personally I just like everything that takes us forward.