Steve Jobs to ‘Remain Involved’ in Development of Future Products and Strategy

The web has been reacting to the shocking headline Steve Jobs had stepped down as Apple’s CEO. When I first saw the news headline I seriously did a double take–was this a joke? Nope. The day Apple enthusiasts had been blocking from their minds had come to fruition–Steve Jobs would no longer be front and centre at Apple.

However, let’s not give up just yet on Steve Jobs–he is a fighter. According to Walt Mossberg at AllThingsD, his sources have reiterated Steve will still be well-connected with operations at Apple, in his post-CEO life:

To be very clear, Jobs, while seriously ill, is very much alive. Extremely well-informed sources at Apple say he intends to remain involved in developing major future products and strategy and intends to be an active chairman of the board, even while new CEO Tim Cook runs the company day to day.

This isn’t much of a surprise considering Jobs has done this before during his other leave of absences. Tim Cook is more than capable of running Apple, as he has mastered the product supply chain, making Apple’s efficiency the envy of the world.

Will we see Steve Jobs one more time at the inevitable Fall media event to announce the iPhone 5? Maybe. Maybe not. If the latter is the case, then the last Steve Jobs presentation would have been his surprise presentation to the Cupertino City Council, detailing the future of Apple’s ‘Spaceship’ campus.

Web Reaction to Steve Jobs’ Resignation

As with such a massive story, the web has been reacting to Steve’s departure. here are a couple of my favourite reads so far:

WSJ Digits on Steve Jobs’ Best Quotes:

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

John Gruber from Daring Fireball:

Jobs’s greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It is Apple itself.

I’m still shocked at the announcement, as I never expected it to happen so soon. Keep working, Steve.

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