[Macworld]

Post your comments for A new reality distortion field here

[montgomery_burns]

Instead of predicting the demise of Apple, have the analysts considered that some good may come out of Steve leaving Apple? Maybe it's time for a new CEO who does not feel the need to live under Steve's shadow. Apple under new RDF-free leadership might actually start listening to customers and making products that customers want, rather than making only what Steve wants you to buy.

Relations with game developers and iPhone developers might improve. Maybe the iMac will no longer be such a ridiculous pain to take apart. Maybe Apple will start making that midrange tower. Maybe the iPhone will finally get copy and paste!

[beeble42]

You mean products that you want rather the products that Steve knows 100 million + customers want to buy don't you?
If Apple weren't making products that people wanted they wouldn't be growing at twice the speed of the Market in CPUs, producing the most sought after and most imitated phone in the world and totally dominant in the portable music player space. I'm yet to see an Apple employee holding a gun to someone's head saying "You will buy that iPod and you will like it!"
Yes, I'm a fan of the midrange tower idea too, but most of the worlds computer users aren't. You're talking about a G4 Cube with a second expansion slot. It sold so well I'm sure Apple would have security escort the employee who suggests they revist the idea off campus immediately.

[Lisamacnewton]

Damned if you do
Damned if you don't.
First he doesn't say anything on his health because of privacy. Thwn when he DOES the media (and everyone else) jumps on the "death" bandwagon. I don't blame him for being reticent about all of this. Celebrity or no, he's human and deserves some time to heal. Hopefully the dust flingers will feel pretty stupid come June.

[dlbyron]

There's much complexity to this situation to unravel: the press insisting it's relevant, attempting to scoop and outright mad that it's not getting "the truth" from Apple; bloggers wanting to make themselves relevant in light of a press that's dying; and sickest of all is they're all inserting themselves into the story, like the Fake Steve Jobs or the reporter Steve called a Slime Bucket. I mean really want do they want a press conference with doctors and medical records like he was a political candidate?
Lost in the reporting is the short sellers and the impact they've had -- we seem to have forgot the iReporter report that Jobs had died. Wired should be ashamed of itself for even writing something like they did and should stop making news for themselves on a person's health.

[dlbyron]

There's much complexity to this story to unravel: the press wanted to stay relevant and outright pissed that they're not getting "the truth" from Apple; bloggers wanted to supplant the press as even more relevant; and all of them are inserting themselves into the new story like the Fake Steve Jobs and Joe Nocera, "slime bucket." What do they want? For Steve to appear at a press conferences flanked by doctors and medical records and to what end? The bloggers and media should stop making news for themselves on someone's health.
An underreported angle of this story is the short sellers and the seemingly forgotten ireporter who reported that Jobs was dead last year.

[dlbyron]

(sorry for the double post, this site behaves weird with my logins and postings)

[BrianChen]

Good piece, Dan.
Regarding my article: I agree Roger Kay is in no position to diagnose someone based on a photograph; I don't think he feels he is either. He's making a prediction based on the premise that Apple and Steve Jobs cannot be trusted, because their statements in the past month have been unreliable and contradictory. This is why Kay and some others don't believe Jobs when he says he's coming back in five months. Sure, they jump to bold conclusions, but why trust anything Apple says at this point?
With that said, I understand your concerns, and I'll share them with our editorial board.
Take care,
Brian Chen

[MorrisTheCat]

BrianChen said:

Good piece, Dan.

Regarding my article: I agree Roger Kay is in no position to diagnose someone based on a photograph; I don't think he feels he is either. He's making a prediction based on the premise that Apple and Steve Jobs cannot be trusted, because their statements in the past month have been unreliable and contradictory. This is why Kay and some others don't believe Jobs when he says he's coming back in five months. Sure, they jump to bold conclusions, but why trust anything Apple says at this point?

With that said, I understand your concerns, and I'll share them with our editorial board.

Take care,

Brian Chen

Yeah Brian. Apparently it has never occurred to Kay or yourself, or anyone else reporting this hysteria that perhaps, just maybe, Jobs and Apple have been telling us all the truth this whole time, but that his medical condition has been difficult to diagnose properly. Jobs is not a doctor anymore than you or Roger Kay or other 'analysts' so maybe he's been telling us exactly what his doctors have been telling him. Doctors are after all, only human, and can be wrong too. I mean, since we're all just going off on wild speculation safaris, I can speculate that this is what's been happening. That's my interpretation of the situation from my living room, and I'm sticking to it.

See how silly this can get?

[AppleHead]

When you find yourself in a chaotic situation and you are reporting on the situation as it unfolds, it can sure look to someone on the outside that your reports cannot be trusted because they are inconsistent. Too bad cancer and other catastrophic diseases don't behave in a predictable and orderly manner. That interpretation of what we are witnessing is no more or less valid than yours, Brian.

[technolawyer]

Quote

{quote:title=montgomery_burns wrote:}Relations with game developers and iPhone developers might improve. Maybe the iMac will no longer be such a ridiculous pain to take apart. Maybe Apple will start making that midrange tower. Maybe the iPhone will finally get copy and paste! {quote}

This reads like Michael Spindler's business plan in 1994 (just substitute some old product names). Ugh.

[fletc3her]

I think that Jobs' leave of absence could be good for Apple in the medium term. It gives Apple a chance to try out some different combinations of managers to see who is going to be the most effective once Jobs retires. I wouldn't be surprised if Jobs doesn't return as CEO, but hopefully he will be involved at Apple for a long time.

[EnergonCube]

Dan,
On many of these points, I agree with you. However, to say "The thing that bugs me here is the notion that somehow Apple has to play by different rules than any other company because Jobs is a 'celebrity'" is, in fact, your OWN reality distortion field at play.
The fact of the matter is, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1974 that under federal securities law and court decisions, "a public company has an obligation to disclose a fact http://e.g., health status in its filings if there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable shareholder would consider it important."
Basically, any shareholder who has his money invested in the company and doesn't want to lose it, has the RIGHT to know what medical challenges the leadership (Steve Jobs) faces if it presents a threat to said shareholder's investment.
Now, I'm not arguing that Steve Job shouldn't somehow feel violated by having to disclose that information. I would! But... that's the price they pay for being a "public" company. And I'll bet my bottom dollar someone will step up and sue for the information. Chances are good Apple will lose.
Also, regarding your comment about Michal Wolff not "knowing" Tim Cook, I would argue that neither do you. Tim is an operations man -- not a vision man. Yes, he can keep the company running. But he doesn't have Steve's vision or daring. And THAT is the heart of the matter here. Not whether or not he can keep the company "running," but rather can he keep the company innovative?
I say no. he can't.

[xtex404]

Hey.. I'm all for Steve leaving if the new CEO releases an updated Mac Mini sometime this decade.