Talking Business - Apple’s Culture of Secrecy - NYTimes.com.

The final word (?) on Steve Jobs' health?

Interesting article that has a nugget of new information at the end of it. Would the death of Steve Jobs be the end of Apple? Hard to say. When he left the first time (and he didn't really leave, he was forced out the first time because of how big of a giant jerk he was. He was a total loose cannon), Apple lost direction, but honestly they weren't that focused of a company during his initial time there. The Macintosh was his greatest achievement, but that project was started by others within the company, Jobs just came in and saw it to fruition. It was never a hit, never enjoyed huge market share, that was the Apple II series, which was a personal computer, but by no means was it user-friendly.

I think it took Jobs being ousted for him to find himself and to develop his vision. Since he engineered a coupe and came back into the company, he's taken it from being days away from bankruptcy to one of the top technology companies in the world again. So what happens when he leaves/dies? Hopefully he's surrounded himself with good people who will carry on. I think in the short-run, the company will be fine. But in the long-run? Who knows? I think they'll be fine. One of the more interesting things that Jobs has said publicly is that he's as proud of the things that Apple hasn't released as he is of the things they have. Knowing that you have a great product that just isn't marketable and knowing not to release it is a skillset that a lot of the tech companies just don't have. Jobs doesn't have a perfect record at that by any means. Look at the G4 Cube for instance.

I think this is much ado about nothing. I expect him to be around another 10 years at Apple.