Steve Jobs hands over the reins… for now

Never before has one man had such a profound effect on the technology industry. But Steve Jobs is about to deal another blow by taking a “medical leave of absence” from the company “until the end of June”. He wants everyone to know it’s just a temporary thing, so hopefully there won’t be too much pandemonium caused because of it, i.e. Apple shares don’t plummet. This means for the time being, the reigns have been handed over to Tim Cook, who’ll be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations.

He issued an explanatory letter to the Apple team, which was intended to take the focus off him and back on the company, but I doubt that’s proved successful. Judging by the amount of titles regarding this story with the words ‘Steve’ and ‘Jobs’ in the titles this morning, something tells me the spotlight is still shining brightly on him.

Click after the jump to read the letter in its entirety.

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

The state of his health has been questionable since it was announced he has a hormone deficiency a few weeks ago. But are we all still thinking hormone deficiency? I thought not.

So for now, all soft spots, man crushes and stalking will have to be put on hold. And to quote Rahul Sound – the founder of Voodoo PC – Steve, “we wish you a speedy recovery”.

[via Rahul Sood’s weblog]

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