Apple: After Steve Jobs Medical Leave

When Jobs announced his leave of absence for medical reasons, bloggers threw around phrases like "company paralysis" and the need for Jobs'  "messianic sense of purpose." They seemed to say, Apple can weather his absence in the short-term, but what about the long-term?

The stock market mirrored this worry, and Apple shares plummeted Tuesday at the news, but then made a steady rise throughout the day -- maybe once people understood that Apple wasn't disintegrating and that it had a pretty good quarter.

But the worry was still out there, would the lack of Jobs as chief visionary change Apple? And why not ask the company how Jobs is doing, asked VentureBeat, and save investors some worry? From the Christian Science Monitor:

The public mystique around Jobs is strong, adds [David] Wertheimer, but it is important to note the depth of creativity and innovation surrounding the wide array of products coming from Apple – and what that depth says about the company. β€œThere is no possible way Steve Jobs had enough time to touch every aspect of every product. So the fact that those products have so many great subtle differentiators shows there is a great group of innovative people doing work that is largely attributed to Jobs, because he inspires it,” he says.

Jobs is likely dependent on a creative team of designers and engineers. Admittedly, he has a strong personality and sense of showmanship that is an advantage to the company (including how his company always seems to get free press -- more so than any other,) but he must rely on others for true innovation to occur.

Because of that, I think Apple will continue to persevere with Jobs at the helm or on medical leave.

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