The end of the second era of Steve Jobs at Apple

The second era of Steve Jobs at Apple began in 1997 with his triumphant return to the company and Apple's subsequent years of success. It ended today, with the announcement that Steve Jobs will be stepping down for six months to take care of a health issue.

Jobs may well get through this issue and emerge healthy and strong- and return triumphantly to Apple some time in the future to confound the skeptics and usher in a new era of influence over the company.

But make no mistake: Apple as we have known it for the past twelve years, the company personified by Steve Jobs, is now changed forever.

What started last year as a series of gradually growing rumblings about Jobs' health has now played out in a manner that confirms the worst (or near-worst) fears of the people who made his health an issue in the first place: that Jobs was sick, he could very possibly surrender his leadership position in the company at any time as a result, and that until Apple made some significant changes, Jobs' loss had the potential to seriously harm the company because of his inextricable connection to it.

So this has more or less transpired.

I hope he's okay and I wish him all the best. He is an icon, a hero, and a figure who will go down in history as one of our greatest artists, entrepreneurs, and cultural influences. And while I have no specific reason to believe we're ready to begin fearing for the worst, Apple and everyone else with anything positive to say on the matter have proven that we can't take their commentary seriously, and that the people with the most skeptical eyes and cynical fears could quite possibly be right.

That's a shame.

The good news is that in the past few weeks, and months, Apple has taken clear steps to establish itself as being capable of being Apple without Steve Jobs. Phil Schiller's Macworld keynote was a solid piece of that process. In the long run, I think Apple will probably be fine.

In the short term, though, I'm left a little saddened and confused by the fact that we're suddenly confronted by a situation at Apple that is contrary to what Apple and Jobs had implied would be the case, and is exactly what a lot of very cynical people thought would happen.

I don't want to end this post on the tone of the previous paragraph, though, so I do think it's also worth noting that all of this is about a deeply personal matter connected to a man that many of us respect deeply, and who has asked for privacy and respect as he moves forward.