Big Fat Story
The weight loss finally explained.
According to Steve Jobs, his pale and skinny appearance is due to “a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy.” While some are skeptical of the claim, about which Jobs provided few additional details, St. Louis University Medical School endocrinologist Dr. John Morley told The Daily Beast that Jobs's symptoms are consistent with several hormone disorders. Another expert, Dr. Sun Ryu of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, suggested that Jobs might be suffering from diabetes or an enzyme deficiency connected to surgery on his pancreas. Jobs underwent a “Whipple procedure” on his pancreas in 2004 to remove a tumor and some have suggested that his health is likely a product of various side effects associated with the surgery, such as “gastric acid reflux, stomach ulcers, oily bowel movements, intolerance toward larger meals and aversion to certain foods.”
Paul Sakuma / AP
Silence on Jobs’s health led to a guessing game in the press.
The reclusive Steve Jobs kept shareholders, consumers, and media on edge for months as rumors flew about the cancer survivor's health. After Jobs turned up at the Worldwide Developers Conference last July looking skeletal (Apple attributed his weight to a “common bug”), speculation ran wild that Jobs might be suffering from everything from a renewed battle with cancer to a forced vegan diet. When Apple announced that Jobs would not be appearing at the 2009 Macworld Expo, the annual event where Jobs previously debuted such products as the iPod and the iPhone, the chatter became a clamor and a debate broke out over whether it was Jobs's responsibility to his shareholders to come clean with any illness he may have. Despite Jobs's announcement Monday that a “hormone imbalance” was the cause of his emaciated appearance, few shareholders and industry reporters will be satisfied without a more detailed account of his illness.
Paul Sakuma / AP
The hippie who invented the iPod.
Had he not been adopted as a newborn baby in 1955, Jobs, the son of a Syrian political scientist, would have been called Steve Jandali. Instead he grew up in Silicon Valley, dropped out of college after a single semester, took LSD in profusion, and was headed for a hippie life in India. Then he became infatuated with computer games. After working on Atari’s Breakout he started to design a personal computer and founded Apple, with Stephen Wozniak. Soon after came the first Macintosh. After falling out with his CEO, Jobs left to found NeXT computers, then returned to run Apple in 1996 when his old firm bought his new one. He headed one wave of intuitive, well designed innovations after another: the iMac, the iPod, iTunes, and the iPhone. In 1986 Jobs bought Star Wars director George Lucas’s computer graphics outfit, renamed it Pixar, made Toy Story and a string of animated hits, and in 2006 sold the company to Disney, becoming the studio’s largest single investor. He was married to Laurene Powell by a zen Buddhist monk in 1991, and they have three children. Apple pays him just $1 a year; according to Forbes he is worth $5.4 billion.
Apple Computers Inc. / AP
How Sick Is Steve Jobs?
After surviving pancreatic cancer, Apple’s CEO now says he has a hormone imbalance. How ill is he? And can the company that brought us the iPod and the iPhone prosper without him?
Greatly exaggerated—and bad for business.
When Bloomberg was updating its obituary of Jobs last year it inadvertently put the story out over the wires, to the consternation of Jobs, his family, and Apple shareholders. The obit contained few surprises, but it was a timely reminder of Jobs’s mortality, and the importance of his personal vision and drive to both Apple and Disney. Had Wall Street not already closed, shares of both companies would have been sent tumbling. When two months later a false report suggested Jobs had died of a heart attack, Apple stock fell 5 percent. The premature obit confirmed Jobs in his philosophy of life, developed after he contracted pancreatic cancer. “Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life,” he told Stanford students at a commencement ceremony. “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
The impression that Apple is little more than a one-man band derives from Jobs’s trademark bravura performances in front of his devoted staff. Wearing a black roll neck sweater and blue jeans, he announces company strategy, inspires devotion to his leadership, and launches the latest Apple products in a Messianic stand up routine that other CEOs emulate at their peril. Part P.T. Barnum, part Elmer Gantry, Jobs sells his vision while ambling up and down a bare stage under a single spotlight, whether retooling the company under fresh management, introducing a new Apple Mac, or unveiling the iPhone for the first time. Jobs has made himself so pivotal to the Apple brand, and so motivating to the Apple staff, it is hard to imagine how anyone can replace him.
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
Despite constant speculation regarding Jobs' health, Apple still does not have an obvious successor lined up should their CEO have to step aside. Industry news site Channel Web put together five possibilities, including Jonathan Ive, who comes up with the distinctive look of new Apple products, Scott Forstall, who put together the iPhone's operating system, Ron Johnson, who's in charge of the company's retail strategy, Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer who briefly took over for Jobs once already, and Phillip Schiller, the marketing guru who will substitute for Jobs at this week’s Macworld Expo. Whoever comes after Jobs will have big shoes to fill and Apple has kept quiet about its plans should it have to operate without its founder.
Paul Sakuma / AP
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