Steve Jobs to Step Down as CEO of Apple?

On January 17 Steve Jobs was granted a medical leave of absence to focus on his health. After this news was announced the web lit up with all sorts of rumors of Steve Jobs Health. In a almost daily occurrence somebody tweets or posts on a forum with the “news,” that Steve Jobs died. None more infamous than the 2008 Bloomberg obituary. Steve Jobs appeared in early March to announce the iPad2, and looked no better or worse than the previous few years. Steve Jobs already made it quite clear in 2008 that he doesn’t want more questions regarding his health. Who can blame him?

The newest announcement of Jobs’ current medial leave, could be away of quietly stepping down as CEO, without causing pure panic. Tim Cook, the man who took over again, has already proved himself as a more than capable leader. Apple’s stock showed no sign of slowdown under Cook, and actually saw huge gains. This leaves shareholders with the question if Steve Jobs would be better served as the voice of Apple, as Tim Cook officially takes over as CEO.

Jobs obviously wants to focus on his health, and the more he is out of the spotlight the better. Jobs is indeed the king of Apple, and will always remain so. People still think of Bill Gates as Microsoft, even though it has been years since he was heading the company. Microsoft had an extremely slow succession, and it appears as though Apple could be going along in the same manner.

Pure speculation at this point. AAPL still looks like a buy, with or without Jobs at the helm. Even with this economy Apple shows no signs of slowing down. Smartly switching from iPods to iPhones to iPads, and at the same time showing huge growth in their PC market. (Yes, Apple computers are actually PCs.)

Apple Inc. (AAPL)

NASDAQ:AAPL
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