Apple CEO Steve Jobs steps aside citing health issues

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 15 January 2009 04:08

IT Industry - Strategy

Steve Jobs is taking a five and a half month medical leave of absence from his role as CEO of Apple, saying his health issues "are more complex than I originally thought."

Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in mid 2004. Since then there has been much speculation about his health, largely due to a significant loss of weight that gave him a somewhat haggard appearance.

Apple's official photo of Jobs provided for media use is a far cry from news photos taken at the launch of the iPod nano in September 2008 (eg the New York Post).

Last December, Apple announced that Jobs would not give his traditional keynote presentation at Macworld Expo 2009. Instead, his place would be taken by Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.

Although the company's statement appeared to link this change to Apple's decision that this would be the last time it exhibited at Macworld Expo, the news triggered a fresh wave of speculation about Jobs' health.

On January 5 - the eve of the Macworld Expo keynote session - Jobs published an open letter to the Apple community in which he revealed that doctors had attributed his weight loss to "a hormone imbalance" with a "relatively simple and straightforward" remedy.

However, he warned that it would take several months to regain the body mass.

But there was more to the story - please read on.