Steve Jobs is not dead
By Davey Winder in Editorial
There, I have said it. Steve Jobs is not dead. The Fake Steve Jobs is dead or at least the character has been buried, the man behind The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs blog is doing just fine, by the way.
Now you might wonder why I care about either of them, and while I have no wish to see either shake off their respective mortal coils the truth is I don’t.
So why mention it at all? Good question, and one that I have been asking myself a lot over the last few days as the blogosphere has verily exploded with rumour and speculation surrounding the health of Steve Jobs. In fact, I am going to take the unusual step of not linking to any of the sources as there are just so many you might as well go Google for yourself. If you must.
It is all rooted in two things: the fact that Jobs was diagnosed in 2004 with pancreatic cancer which he survived, and the fact that Apple is such a hot potato right now. Not just because of the iPhone 3G launch, but because it has gone so spectacularly pear shaped in so many ways.
Combine these two things with the fact that apparently Jobs looked a little thin and peaky recently, and all of a sudden the money men are interested.
After all, what would Apple do, or more to the point how would Apple perform, if Jobs was no longer at the helm?
Morbid, yes. Understandable, maybe. Preventable, not on your nelly. The blogosphere is going to run and run with this one, until either Jobs comes out and says ‘I have cancer’ or produces some kind of doctors certificate or otherwise refutes the allegations.
While Apple continues to tell everyone to keep their collective noses out of the personal affairs of the CEO, however, the speculation will only continue. And that, my friends, is going to be bad for Apple I believe.
Too many folk, even in financial institutions and on shareholders lists, believe in the no smoke without fire routine. After all, Jobs did not reveal his earlier cancer scare for nine months and investors may be worried this is history repeating itself.
It shouldn’t make any difference, of course. But Apple is Steve Jobs, and Steve Jobs is Apple. There is no getting away from that. Just as Daniel Lyons might find life harder, in terms of great public acclaim, without the Fake Steve Jobs so Apple might find the going tough without the real one.
I sincerely hope that there is nothing wrong with Steve Jobs beyond a cold or the after effects of a bad pizza, but I also sincerely hope that Apple gets off its high privacy horse and lets the public know one way or another before it starts feeling sick itself…
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