“I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can.”
Read that again with this in mind: These are the words from a man who has been near death at least two times in a very short period of time. A man who had to survive a traumatic transplant, with one foot in the grave. And yet, he doesn’t close his letter saying “Thank you for your support” or some other generic phrase. The last message is to declare his true love.
It’s very simple: What CEO in this world, facing the dramatic consequences of cancer and a scarring transplant, would end a letter declaring the love for his company in such a candid, absolute way?
None. Unless they have created that company from scratch and dedicate an entire life to it, nobody would.
With that in mind, investors, fanboys, journohacks, readers: Who cares who Apple’s CEO could be? Have this clear in your mind: Nobody, absolutely nobody in the company or outside of it would be able to fill Steve’s shoes.
This is not a matter of fanboyism. This is not a matter of making a god out of the man. No. It’s just that nobody would be able to dedicate himself in flesh and soul to Apple in the same way that Steve Jobs does. Because he is in love with the company. The company is his kid. The company is himself at a very deep level. Not only because of his role in the decision making process—which is huge – but because it actually embodies his life. His birth, exile and return. His ideas and his dreams. His glories and miseries, absolute successes and total failures. No matter how they try to stage it and pretend that everything would be fine, it will not be fine.
Apple will not be fine if he doesn’t return. It will be OK for a few years, sure. The managers are good. The engineers are great. And I’m sure a new CEO would be very good too. But, if he doesn’t return, this man wouldn’t not be there. And he is the force that makes the whole thing tick. Out of pure love for the company he made.
wsDK_II
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 8:52 AMGood, hopefully my kids wont have to grow up in a world where if you dont have an ipod / iphone / imac / apple air / ipad you arnt cool
Stephen Earp
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 10:03 AM^^ +1
Stephen Earp
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 10:03 AM+1
Cameron
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 10:05 AMUnfortunately I’d have to agree with this. Apple has become too big and closed for it’s own good. Sure they’re products look cool and all, but surely that’s only the case when they’re niche, when every man and his dog are walking around with iProducts, which are this crazy closed ecosystem, what good does that do for consumers as a whole? Hopefully out of Apple’s ashes we end up with new innovative companies that don’t seal everything they make so tight it requires “jailbreaks” to actually use them.
Dirk
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 1:48 PMRight, because it’s not a suitable platform until your phone picks up a virus. Geeks will have to come to terms with their irrelevance in the 21st century. Unless you’re creating the next big thing you’re just a user and there’s more users who just want a phone that works than those who want to have sex with their phone. They’re appliances, not part of your identity.
matt
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 3:49 PMDirk you noob, its not about being intimate with your phone, its about pure emotionless practicality. this is why people jailbreak.
when it comes to emotions. you will more likely find its the average apple user filled with them, not the tech geek just trying to get the most functionality out of their device…
glennc
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 8:55 AMwhat he is saying is he is in love with himself. this is like saying MS wouldn’t survive without gates
Pork Chop
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 9:18 AMI think he has instilled enough in the the team that they will be fine. Jony Ives is emotionally invested in the products he creates and coupled with some good business minds and the winning formula they have refined over the years, I think we will see many more great products fro Apple. Get well Master Steve.
MDolley
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 9:43 AMI think Jesus is reading WAY too much into a single sentence. He probably didn’t put anywhere near that much thought into it. It looked to me like he just shot off a quick email while he was cleaning up his desk. It’s posts like this that make Apple fanboys seem so annoying. Microsoft and Android fans rave about the products, not the people that make them.
boc
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 2:17 PMYou’re right but, we all know that Jesus Diaz is unashamedly in love with Steve Jobs and Apple already.
I read that last bit as a subtle message to placate investors.
If he ended with, “Thank you for your support”, it could come off as he’s dying or he won’t be returning (for a long time). Apple share price would tank in that situation.
MDolley
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 5:46 PMBut that wasn’t even the end of the email. It ended with “In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.”
When you combine the two it is completely different. “I love Apple, now leave me alone”
Nodeity
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 10:44 AMPersonally, I hate how deeply apple has managed to ingrain itself into a very large percentage of current tech… It’s very hard nowadays to find a stereo or video equipment or even a car without a damned ipod connector in it. Seems like manufacturers are neglecting the large percentage of people who don’t want to be DRM’d to death by apples proprietary crap!! :{
Sunnycoast
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 10:51 AMSay what you like, Jobs has proven that there is more money in hardware than software if you do it right. $300+ billion market worth is cold hard proof, not biased fluff as so many haters spout.
Aimless
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 1:58 PM+1
It doesn’t matter what haters say, Jobs is a great leader and in case you didn’t notice, most of the greatest leaders in the world have similar characteristics as Jobs. He didn’t get crowned the CEO of the decade by Fortune magazine twice for no reason
boc
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 2:24 PMWrong. Apple realise there is more money in brand and image than actual product.
Bee
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 5:58 PMHave you ever used an Apple product for an extended period of time or at work?
If you had, you would realise that they have put alot more thought into just brand or image. They are all about making things easier for the user, if you don’t take the time to understand the product, how is it going to reach it’s full potential?
boc
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 1:11 PMI’ve been using Macbook Pros for about 7 years now. My brother has gone through 2 iPhones and an iPod Touch. So, yes I am familiar with some of their products.
I would say they are more about making things more appealing to the user.
Also re-read what I said as I never suggested they made bad products.
matt
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 3:57 PMlol… wat…
its the SOFTWARE that defines Apple products… not the hardware – as good as the HARDWARE actually is.
no, if anything, its hardware and software in perfect harmony that defines apple.
let me guess… you looked at MS, saw that apple overtook them went “wow, MS make software, and Apple make hardware, hence, hardware is betarrr!”
that is such a noob analysis of what makes Apple and steve so successful…
Steve
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 9:00 PMDon’t be naive. Apple’s software isn’t what got them to where they are now. All the hipsters and college students aren’t using macbooks because of a deep, burning passion for OSX.
Apple’s primary shill… it sells a lifestyle. They tell you that if you buy their phone, you too can be as cool as Justin Long.
The problem here, is that if 10 million squares buy into the Apple lifestyle believing they’re all beautiful and unique snowflakes, it defeats the entire purpose. You can’t be individuals if all of you use the same monolithic ecosystem with the closed garden walls and limited user influence.
At this point, for better or worse, Apple’s snowballed because of very good marketing. 90% of the Apple users out there don’t know anything about SSD/HDD, GHz, iOS etc.
Richard Djordjevic
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 1:22 AMMarket worth means a lot less than you make out. Apples value as a company may be higher based on stock value, but everything I can see points to MS having higher profits still despite Apple having a quarter with higher revenue. If anything it shows there is a larger profit margin for software, not that we didn’t know that already.
Tim
Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 3:24 PMI would think a journalist wouldn’t automatically assume that the person attributed to the words isn’t necessarily the person who wrote the words.
Steve
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 9:02 PMI was wondering the same thing. But it’s the least of this article’s problems.
But hey, it’s Gizmodo.