[交流] Steve Jobs quits as Apple chief

BBC:Steve Jobs resigns as chief executive at Apple and will be replaced by the firm's chief operating officer Tim Cook.

CNN:Apple CEO Steve Jobs resigns and will be replaced by former Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, the company says. Jobs will stay on as Apple's chairman.

新華網:苹果董事会宣布CEO乔布斯辞职 COO库克接任

[ 本帖最後由 Audrey Hepburn 於 2011-8-25 09:15 編輯 ]

Apple founder Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive of the technology giant and will be replaced by its chief operating officer Tim Cook.

Mr Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant following pancreatic cancer, said he could no longer meet his chief executive's duties and expectations.

The Silicon Valley legend will become chairman of the firm.

The 55-year-old has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since 17 January.

In a short letter to the board of Apple, Mr Jobs wrote: "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's chief executive, I would be the first to let you know.

"Unfortunately, that day has come. I hereby resign as chief executive of Apple.

"I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
"I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you."

Apple board member Art Levinson paid tribute to Mr Job's contribution to the company: "Steve's extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position the world's most innovative and valuable technology company."

'Hugely successful'
Analysts said the move was not unexpected, and would have little impact on the day-to-day running of the company.

"Steve is [still] going to be able to provide the input he would do as a chief executive," said Colin Gillis at BGC Financial.

"But Tim has been de facto chief executive for some time and the company has been hugely successful. The vision and the roadmap is intact."

However, Apple shares slid in after-hours trading, suggesting that some investors were less confident of the company's prospects without Mr Jobs at the helm.

Mr Jobs is widely seen as the creative force that has driven Apple to become one of the world's biggest companies.

Thanks to innovative and hugely popular products such as the iPod, the iPhone and more recently the iPad, Apple has become one of the most sought after brands in the world.

In the three months to the end of June, the company made a profit of $7.3bn on revenues of $28.6bn. It sold more than 20 million iPhones in the period and 9.25 million iPads.

Revolutionary products
Mr Jobs started Apple in the 1970s and its Macintosh computers became hugely popular in the 1980s.

In 1985, Mr Jobs left the company after falling out with colleagues, only to return in 1996 and begin Apple's transformation by launching the colourful iMac computer.

The iPod, which revolutionised the personal music-player market and spawned myriad copycat devices, was launched in 2002 and lay the foundations for the company's success over the past decade.

Next came the iPhone, which similarly revolutionised the smartphone market, while the iPad confounded some initial scepticism to prove hugely popular.

Many versions of these products have been launched while Mr Jobs has been on medical leave, and new versions that have been planned for months will not be affected by his departure, analysts said.

[ 本帖最後由 Audrey Hepburn 於 2011-8-25 09:16 編輯 ]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs has resigned and will be replaced by former Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, the company said late Wednesday. Jobs will stay on as Apple's chairman.
Apple made no mention of Jobs' health in its statement about the change, but Jobs alluded to it in the letter of resignation he sent to Apple's board on Wednesday and later released publicly.
"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," wrote Jobs, who has been on medical leave since January. Cook has been filling in as the company's leader. (For more on Tim Cook, see Fortune's landmark profile: "Tim Cook: The genius behind Steve")
Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) board took pains to praise Jobs, who lead a historic turnaround for the once-ailing company. Apple shares were briefly halted in after-hours trading as Apple announced its leadership change. When trading resumed, shares dropped 5%.
"Steve's extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company," board member Art Levinson said. "In his new role as chairman of the board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration."
Apple's fans flocked to Twitter and other social-media sites to mark and mourn the CEO torch-passing. "The end of an era!" one Twitter user wrote, while another voiced the fears many share: "I pray it's not bc [because] of his health."
In January, Jobs said he would take another medical leave of absence, two years after a six-month sabbatical during which he received a liver transplant. Although it was his third medical leave of absence, he continued to make Apple's major strategic decisions while Cook took over the day-to-day operations.
Cook has nearly 30 years of experience in the computer industry, serving in leadership roles at IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Intelligent Electronics and Compaq before joining Apple in 1998.
Jobs made his last public appearance in June when he unveiled iCloud, a free wireless storage and syncing service, at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Jobs received a standing ovation when he took the stage.
Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 from his family's garage with Steve Wozniak. Nine years later, Jobs parted ways with Apple after disagreements with management. He returned as a consultant in 1996 and became interim CEO a year later. In 2000, he took the job permanently.
In his second run as CEO, Jobs led a Phoenix-like resurrection that transformed Apple from a bumbling also-ran to the second-largest company in the world by market value. Billion-dollar products like the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and most recently the iPad have made Apple the envy of all tech competitors.
"I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role," Jobs wrote in his resignation letter. "I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you."
Six years ago, Jobs delivered his only commencement speech -- one that is often cited as the speech of his life. "Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new," he told the crowd at Stanford University. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
It was a powerful talk, given the CEO's history of illness. Jobs was diagnosed with a treatable form of pancreatic cancer in 2004. Since then, both his health and how the company would run without him have been topics of intense speculation.
Tim Cook, who will take Jobs' spot, quickly gained the favor of the notoriously hard-to-please CEO. Cook was named COO in 2005 after having "been doing this job for over two years," Jobs said at the time. Jobs even gave him an office near his in Apple's Cupertino headquarters.
As COO, Cook has been responsible for Apple's product sales and operations, overseeing the company's manufacturing, distribution and inventories, as well as negotiating with wireless networks that carry the iPhone. He organized Apple's successful retail store strategy, and he is in charge of ensuring that Apple's new products launch without any setbacks or major glitches.
Design and marketing, however -- which fell directly under Jobs' purview -- is not Cook's forte.
Still, some analysts that follow Apple say they believe Steve Jobs built up a resilient culture over the past 14 years, cultivating strong teams that can continue to innovate without him. Many of those teams pulled off very ambitious projects while he was on leave, including the iPad 2, iOS 5 and the new MacBook lineup.
"One of the most important things that Steve Jobs did in Apple 2.0 is rebuilding the culture," said Mike McGuire, analyst at Gartner. "But it's not quite the 'cult of Steve' like many believe. He built incredible teams that didn't quite have free reign, but had plenty of room to innovate. It's going to be hard work, but Apple will be fine without him."

[ 本帖最後由 Audrey Hepburn 於 2011-8-25 09:15 編輯 ]

图为苹果前COO库克(左)和乔布斯(右)在一起。(新浪科技配图)

　　北京时间8月25日早间消息，苹果董事会今天宣布，苹果CEO史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)辞职，董事会已任命前苹果COO蒂姆·库克(Tim Cook)接任苹果CEO一职。乔布斯被选为董事会主席，库克将加入董事会，立即生效。

　　乔布斯今天向苹果董事会递交了辞呈，并强烈推荐前苹果COO蒂姆·库克(Tim Cook)接任苹果CEO一职。

　　今年1月，乔布斯再度宣布病休。这位56岁的苹果掌门人在病休期间仍然担任CEO，积极参与公司业务和各项活动。此后，他将公司日常运营交由COO蒂姆·库克(Tim Cook)处理。

　　乔布斯的病休曾一度导致苹果股价暴跌， 资者认为此举增添了苹果未来前景的不确定性。不过此后，乔布斯并未从公众视线中消失。他不仅前去苹果总部工作，还出席了美国总统奥巴马举行的硅谷宴会，并主持了iPad 2发布会和苹果2011年全球开发者大会。

　　库克今年50岁，在乔布斯离开期间通常由他负责公司运营。熟悉苹果日常运营的人士称，与其他资深高管一样，库克理解乔布斯的想法，并设定了未来几年间的产品路线图。

　　新任CEO将不得不肩负起乔布斯目前承担的责任，如高管退休问题。由于苹果股价在过去5年间上涨近7倍，许多高管已成富豪，有可能选择离职变现，如何维持团队的完整性是CEO面临的一大难题。从去年11月至今，苹果零售主管罗 恩·约翰逊(Ron Johnson)、营销传播副总裁埃里森·约翰逊(Allison Johnson)和Mac软件工程主管伯特兰德·塞莱特(Bertrand Serlet)先后离职。(新轶)

　　附乔布斯辞职信全文：

　　致苹果董事会及苹果社区：

　　我曾经说过，如果有一天我不再能履行作为苹果CEO的职责和期望，我会是第一个告诉你们知道的人。不幸的是，这一天到来了。

　　在此，我宣布从苹果CEO的职位上辞职，如果董事会同意，我将担任苹果董事会主席。

　　针对接任者，我强烈建议执行我们制定的接任计划，提名蒂姆·库克为苹果CEO。

　　我相信，苹果的未来将更加光明，更具创造力。我期待为未来苹果的成功，也将为此尽自己的绵薄之力。

　　我在苹果结交了一些人生中最好的朋友，能和你们所有人一起共事这么多年，非常感谢你们。

遺憾遺憾 改變人類科技歷史的偉人