Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Steve Jobs Back At Apple

Steve JobsAt the start of Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" event today, a standing ovation was given to the pioneer and father of Apple, Steve Jobs. Back in 2004, Jobs announced to his staff at Apple that he had a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. Thankfully, Jobs was not seriously ill from it and continued working though signs if his illness were visible in his speeches and keynotes. In January 2009, Jobs alerted his staff that he had a physical ailment which didn't allow the his body to process hormones. Jobs learned that his problem was more complex than originally thought and decided to take a 5 month leave from Apple, feeling that his ailment was a distraction not only to him and his family but to the staff of Apple as well.

Jobs placed Tim Cook in charge of Apple in his absence as he had done in 2004. Although Jobs was not acting CEO, he still had involvement in major strategic decisions with Apple and it's products. In April 2009, Jobs underwent a liver transplant at the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, Tennessee. Jobs received the liver from a young man in his 20's who was killed in a car accident. The young man had been an organ donor and, according to Jobs, his liver is what saved Jobs' life.

At Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" event, Jobs took a moment to thank everyone for their support and to thank the generosity of the young organ donor. Jobs then went on to encourage everybody there to be as generous as the young man and become organ donors. Jobs informed the crowd that he was "vertical" now and that he is happy to be back at Apple and loving every minuet of it. Jobs also discussed that he was already hard at work creating some "incredible new products" for the future. It is good to see that Steve Jobs is doing well and that he is already back on his feet and working hard at Apple. Watch the video of Steve Jobs' return below.

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