Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs died today, the company said in a statement.
"We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,'' the company said in its statement, released shortly after 4:30 p.m.
"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.''
Word of Jobs' death came several months into a medical leave that began in mid-January, his third absence since 2004 when he announced to Apple employees that he'd undergone a successful surgery for a rare, treatable form of pancreatic cancer. In January 2009, Jobs took a six-month break during which he underwent a liver transplant. Then early this year, he left the helm of the company once again, this time for an open-ended period, raising speculation about his continuing struggle with cancer.
Jobs did make occasional appearances in recent years, including the unveiling of the iPad touch-screen tablet in early 2010, and this past summer he showed up at a Cupertino City Council meeting to present his plans for a new Apple campus.
Then, on Aug. 24, Jobs announced that he would resign his post as CEO, asking that he remain as chairman of the board and be replaced as chief executive by interim CEO Tim Cook.
Cook, who handled day-to-day operations of the company while Jobs was on leave in 2009, had impressed analysts. And during that time Apple released the wildly successful iPhone 3GS, while the iPad was under development.
Even as Apple's stock soared along with a nonstop parade of hits from its product pipeline, a phenomenal business story that saw the company grow into the most valuable tech firm on the planet, worries mounted over Jobs' lingering health problems. And with each new medical leave, concerns mounted that Jobs' days as head of the company he co-founded in 1976 would soon be over. A recent report in Fortune magazine said that Jobs started thinking seriously about stepping down as CEO in late July, according to people close to him, because returning full time to Apple was increasingly doubtful.
"These people say that Jobs suffers ups and downs," the report said. "Some days he is able to hold meetings and weigh in on decisions. Some days he remains housebound and cancels appointments. While he could have chosen the status quo -- remaining CEO, with Cook leading day-to-day operations -- Jobs decided to take the next step in the transition."
In public sightings and tabloid photos, Jobs looked increasingly frail and gaunt, a condition complicated by the company's own obsession with secrecy around its leader. It was a troubling image, especially compared with the sort of youthful exuberance that Jobs had exuded for so many years. With the CEO's boyish all-in-one personality of product guru, gung-ho showman and salesman extraordinaire, it was often hard to tell where the line between the man and his shimmering creations really lay.
Yet through it all, analysts as well as longtime colleagues insisted that Jobs had assembled a brilliant management team and that Apple, at least for the next three to five years, would remain on solid footing.
"The Apple culture is bigger than any one individual," Jobs' longtime friend and valley marketing pioneer Regis McKenna said recently. "There's a DNA in Apple that Steve helped nurture and it will carry on in the enthusiasm of the people he's put in place there.
"It was an enthusiasm that Steve always had," McKenna said. "He'd get really lost in a new product and he'd pause and say, 'Oh, that's so cool.' Even in the dark days, he once said to me 'I love what I'm doing and I want to keep doing it.'"
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Well i guess Apple will have to slow down now.