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Blog: Science Steve Jobs Gets Back on the Job at Apple
Jason Mick (Blog) - June 29, 2009 3:52 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 11 comment(s) - last by xphile.. on Jul 5 at 9:06 PM
Apple's boss resumes role as CEO after bout with disease

After six months off the job, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is back in his commanding role and CEO of the company, according to its spokespeople.  Mr. Jobs’ battle with the side effects of his pancreatic cancer treatment left him in need of a liver transplant and forced him to take a medical leave of absence in January.  Mr. Jobs, according to reports confirmed by a Tennessee hospital, received a liver transplant two months ago and is recovering.

Today Apple spokesman Steve Dowling stated, "Steve Jobs is back to work. He is at Apple a few days a week and working from home the other days.  We're glad to have him back."

Bloggers and analysts have scrutinized the effect Mr. Jobs’ presence -- or his absence -- has on Apple in excruciating detail.  There are varied opinions of exactly how critical he is to the company.  Some have gone as far as to say Mr. Jobs is so important that Apple is breaking laws in failing to disclose to its shareholders more details on his health.

Meanwhile debate over whether favoritism was involved in his receiving an organ transplant also is ongoing.  The Tennessee hospital which confirmed the transplant denied such allegations.

Currently, people receiving liver transplants have a 58 percent chance of surviving 15 years.  Mr. Jobs is currently 54.  He founded Apple when he was only 22 in 1976.

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Buying a liver if you are rich
By PandaBear on 6/29/2009 5:50:10 PM , Rating: 3
OK, so you are rich and you can buy a liver, big deal.

Not literally buying, you have to have a private jet on standby, making sure that you can register in multiple locations, and can afford a doctor that will write whatever medical condition you want to, or keep switching doctors until you found one that will do so.




RE: Buying a liver if you are rich
By TomZ on 6/29/2009 6:00:45 PM , Rating: 2
Having greater access to healthcare to prolong one's life is just one of the many benefits to being rich. Let's not pretend that everyone gets the same quality of healthcare regardless of their ability to pay.


By mmntech on 7/1/2009 12:01:49 PM , Rating: 2
Unless you're in Canada where you have equal right to be ignored by ER staff for hours on end regardless of how much blood loss there is. :p


RE: Buying a liver if you are rich
By Lastfreethinker on 6/30/2009 2:34:04 PM , Rating: 2
You actually have to show residency to be on a transplant waiting list, Jobs moved to Virgina because they have a shorter list.


RE: Buying a liver if you are rich
By Sazar on 6/30/2009 3:51:36 PM , Rating: 2
That still only goes to show that if you have the money for it, you can do this a lot easier :)

Not everyone can just up and move to a new state due to the inherent cost associated, not to say finding new job, friends and all that jazz.

But your point stands :D


RE: Buying a liver if you are rich
By Boze on 7/1/2009 1:58:51 AM , Rating: 2
I think this article has less to do with Jobs getting a liver and more to do with how critical he is to Apple's continued success.

As much as I hate to say it, and the Jobites will try to sacrifice me on the altar of Jobs, but I think Jobs could drop dead tomorrow and Apple would be okay. Once he forced out Gil Amelio in that boardroom coup a little over a decade ago, Apple started changing quite a bit, going back to its roots, design and form sometimes taking precedence over function.

The Apple, Inc. of today is not the Apple, Inc. of 1997. Jobs has done his best to fill the company with bright, forward-thinking, aesthetically-minded engineers and designers who actually want to design beautiful products that are also (usually) very functional.

I think he's left enough of a mark on the company now that anyone that would be put in his place or take the place of CEO (and isn't a complete fool or arrogant moron) can look at the situation, quickly deduce that Apple is probably better off never becoming a broad-sweeping global computing power like Microsoft or Dell, and sticking with what they do best. Innovation, to a lesser degree, and striking design.

Any new executives that would be put into position after Jobs' death could easily review history to see that Gil Amelio's approach fell flat on its face, and also look at the history of Apple and realize that making it big once might be a fluke, but to come back to Apple twenty years after you founded it, and turn it around from near-obscurity into a well-known American brand takes vision, foresight, discipline, and intelligence. Hopefully they can realize this and not repeat prior mistakes made during the late 80s and early 90s.

Now... having said all that... I really don't care much for Apple as a company, its products, or Steve Jobs himself. I think he's arrogant, controlling, and entirely too boastful. I can respect what he's done for technology though. He's a stark contrast to Bill Gates. Those PC guy and Mac guy commercials are really just mirrors of Bill and Steve. Bill is nice, polite, professional, unpretentious, and generally handles insults and criticisms well. Steve is 'trendy', sometimes a jackass, too 'casual' to be taken seriously by big business, and prefers to hurl insults and criticisms.

That's my personal view, anyway.


RE: Buying a liver if you are rich
By xphile on 7/5/2009 9:06:52 PM , Rating: 2
Either that or just be able to come up with some fava beans and a nice chianti...


wait wait wait.
By xDrift0rx on 6/30/2009 4:00:05 PM , Rating: 2
does the iphone count as a computer? if so....

We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk." -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs

isnt that now invalid? :P




RE: wait wait wait.
By Boze on 7/1/2009 1:49:04 AM , Rating: 2
Have you ever purchased an iPhone with a month-to-month plan? If you have, then you'll know its still dead on... $599 baby.


Font ?
By kalak on 6/29/2009 4:55:48 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
Currently, people receiving liver transplants have a 58 percent chance of surviving 15 years.


Where do you read this ?




RE: Font ?
By Schrag4 on 6/29/2009 5:26:31 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Where do you read this ?


I read this on my computer screen.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Are you try to ask where Jason got the stat? If I remember correctly, he included this stat in the last Steve Jobs/Liver Transplant-related article (or blog) that he wrote. You might be able to find the link there...


"A lot of people pay zero for the cellphone ... That's what it's worth." -- Apple Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook













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