I got the news last night:
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
I know it might seem kind of silly for me to be sad about this, especially since he’s still staying on as the Chairman of the Board, but it feels like the end of an era in a lot of ways, and unfortunately it doesn’t signal great things about his health.
Tim Cook seems like a great guy, and I’m sure he will continue to do wonderful things for the company, but Steve Jobs is an extraordinary person. He changed the world, not just with computers… He’s just inspirational to me as a human being. He has inspired me a tremendous amount to have a vision, to be clear, precise and beautiful in everything I do.
So, thank you, Steve. Thank you for your wonderful work with such an amazing company, bringing it to unbelievable heights and for doing so much to inspire so many along the way.
Hey Camille, I live and work right near apple headquarters here in Cupertino…and needless to say, there will be no slowing down for this company. They are building a new headquarter building that resembles a spaceship and it will be state-of-the-art. I’m sure they will be making new gadgets for us in the near future. =)
I’m sure they will. And lucky you for living so close!
i was going to make an attempt at humor but the man obviously has done a lot for the Apple Computer Company.
i just remembered playing my first computer game(soccer) on an apple computer at a friends house way back in 1983, wow.
i guess my brains system memory is still working well.
i am a Dell PC man myself but have always heard good things about mac which i may actually try in the near future depending on what the new Windows 8 is like.
if its the same ole same ole then its definetly time for a new look/change.
I’m sure that there are still lots of great things in store at Apple!
We heard the news Thursday morning here in the UK. Steve Jobs is such an inspirational man in every way and one of the world’s greatest “thinkers”. When he thinks of an idea he makes it happen, and he carries along with him a vast band of thinkers who make our everyday life so much better. Too many people rely on others to do the thinking and create the ideas and this leads us down the sad road to ignorance. The web provides us with a vast arena from where we can gather and share huge amounts of data and information about everything we ever want know; but we are numbed by this information-overload so much so that we spend all our time processing massive amounts of unnecessary information and find ourselves losing the ability to have our own ideas. Apple products are designed to clear the way for creative working and to allow us to think clearly again.
I started with an Apple desktop way back in the early 90s as did my husband, but we both veered off down the PC route because Microsoft designed their systems for the mass market and made them so much cheaper – not such a bad thing but if you’ve ever used a Mac you’ll know how infuriating a Windows based PC really is. After struggling for so many years we very recently bought a Macbook Pro and feel as though the fog has lifted. Things we used to do easily on the Macintosh in the 90s were only ever achievable on the more recent PCs running hugely expensive software, software that we couldn’t really afford, so our creativity was limited to what we could achieve with what we had. Our new projects with the Mac are a joy and we have started to think again and not question nor doubt our abilities. It’s a simple step, inspired by a simply inspirational man.
Steve, we both wish you well and hope you can overcome this setback in your health.
Meg xx
Awww, what a lovely tribute to his work! He really is a special man.
I know how you feel. I blogged about it last Thursday. I think it’s astounding what he’s accomplished. All we can do is hope that he’ll be around for awhile.
I really really hope so. He’s surprised us all before, so I’m optimistic.