Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO

Steve Jobs once said that people don't know what they want until you show it to them and with incredible almost spooky consistency Jobs has produced new products that consumers discovered they really really wanted well now just hours ago Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive of Apple the company he built just a month after Apple announced astronomical third quarter profits of more than seven billion dollars here's ABC's Neil carlin scheme it was the resignation heard around the world that's because Steve Jobs isn't just a CEO he's been called one of the great visionaries of our time a man on par with Thomas Edison for a new generation the news was pretty shocking I didn't expect that this was going to come today I mean we know that Steve Jobs has been sick for the last several months and been on leave but it came out of nowhere in a letter to Apple's board of directors Jobs writes 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 if you have a cell phone if you listen to music if you use a computer at all Steve Jobs has made a difference but in the midst of all that Jobs has quietly been in the fight of his life for years he beat a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004 but came back to work to bring Apple to new heights but after appearing extremely thin at a conference in 2008 there was new concern about his health I just wanted to mention this job's claimed it was nothing more than a hormone imbalance at first then abruptly took a leave of absence it was only after an appearance in 2009 that the world learned he actually needed a liver transplant effect kept under wraps until after the procedure I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash the tech world feared this day was coming even though he'll stay on as chairman of the board the Steve Jobs era is effectively over Apple's chief operating officer Tim Cook will replace jobs as CEO a brilliant insider who's kept the company on track and successful during jobs earlier medical leave but as just about every analyst on the planet has pointed out before he's no Steve Jobs everybody you talked to at Apple is gonna tell you Steve Jobs is one guy and one of his greatest skills is a talent scout he's assembled the greatest team in the world blah blah blah but the truth is that Steve Jobs is a notorious micro manager he is an overbearing boss with a reputation like nobody you've ever heard of in your life and he is part of the reason that Apple is what well he is most of the reason that Apple is what it is today the reclusive billionaire always led his products do the talking his signature black shirt Levi's and New Balance tennis shoes were generally only on display once or twice a year as Jobs took the stage to announce the company's newest product and we are calling it iPhone he agreed to sit down with us in 2007 after announcing the very first iPhone and while he appeared relaxed his iron grip on all things Apple was playing for us to see as he kept things short and seemed to have his PR people on edge no one bats a thousand you've been called the Babe Ruth of Silicon Valley are you worried that you reach a point where there isn't another killer piece of hardware to come out with to WoW the world you know again we don't worry about stuff like that we just try to build products that we think are really wonderful and that people might want and and sometimes we're right and sometimes we're wrong but I I think we're gonna hit a grand slam with this welcome mr. Douglas looks like you have a fan club here thanks yeah in a strange and surprise move just a few months ago Jobs himself was front and center in of all places the Cupertino City Council pitching the construction of a new world headquarters for his company too starstruck local leaders Steve Jobs founded Apple along with Steve Wozniak back in 1976 where he was best known for the Macintosh computer but by 1985 he was out after internal conflicts and the company was far from the leader in personal computers but a little over a decade later he returned with a vengeance just look at Apple's stock from 5 dollars and 48 cents a share on his 1997 return to 378 dollars today enormous wealth built off a string of successes that have changed the world we live in if you look at jobs and what he's done there's only a couple of people in the past hundred years that there can really be analogous to that you've got Walt Disney Henry Ford and Steve Jobs and and you know those companies still thrive they don't do it in the same way they did when their leaders were around but but they still manage to make it in the cold hard world of technology analysts I mean this will eventually mean an opening an opportunity for the competition to take on Apple but that will have to wait because today isn't just a surprise it's sad sad for the man who's fought with every fiber of his being just to go to work to keep running the company he founded and loved so much he wrote today I believe apples brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it I'm Neal Carl in ski for Nightline in Los Angeles

Channel: ABC News

Views: 697,929

Keywords: Steve Jobs, Apple, Microsoft, iPod, iPad, Neal Karlinsky, Nightline, ABC, ABCNews, News, US, Business, abc, news

Id: aK2AArI4vh0

Length: 5min 29sec (329 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 24 2011

Reddit Comments

[u/62westwallabystreet]

Can't wait to see what he does next!

[u/[deleted]]

No not Steve! He’s done so much for the company and to see him retire so.. suddenly? Anyone have any ideas why??!

[u/janekay16]

Wow, I didn’t expect this. Just watch apple go downhill without him

[u/quickhakker]

he just put apple in the forefront of peoples minds outside of specialist areas and now stepping down? damn also i cant belive that its almost 10 years ago that he died

[u/syakitty]

apple will never rebound h4ck3rs will take it over

[u/Champion-raven]

Wow! What?!

[u/Scrambled_59]

Good for him, hopes he goes on to have a long and hopeful future