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"It's possible Steve Jobs isn't dying..."

It's been a conspiracy of silence, which Gizmodo broke by suggesting that Steve Jobs might be planning to retire. Leave it to the Inquirer to come right out and say what the City and Wall Street have been whispering: is Steve Unwell?

Apple is perceived by investors as the creator of Steve Jobs. When he was forced out by John Scully, Apple withered and nearly died. When he returned, against all conventional wisdom, Apple turned round and came thundering back. And if he goes?

Nobody knows, of course. But investors agree that the main reason why Apple stock isn't valued higher than it is today is because nobody knows who will take over when Steve goes. Or if that person can fill his shoes.

And it's no secret that Steve is human, and even if he doesn't want to retire, he has been very ill. He's younger than Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy, but the crumbling of "Hef" reported so cruelly in recent published media, offers a threat of what could happen if he doesn't "move on" before it's too late. So when he showed up at a big Apple launch, the soothsayers and dowsers reached out with their crystals and divining rods, to see what they could see.

The event, the launch of the Macbook 2008, almost got ignored in the reading of the entrails. Reports focused on the fact that Steve Jobs normally wears denim jeans and a black shirt; and this time, Tim Cook did the presentations (most of them) wearing... denim jeans and a black shirt. Is this Steve's "plan for the succession for Apple?" 

It's part of him. He created it, he was pushed off it, and then he rescued it back from the pits of hell to the top of the world. Along that path he made plenty of mistakes, but getting together the team that have been directing the company with him during the last few years is not one of those mistakes. It may prove to be his biggest lasting achievement

wrote Jesus Diaz.

The play we saw today was the prologue of the new Apple Without Steve but With Steve Era, Jobs signaling that he's not alone at the helm, and that if he moves on, nobody should panic.

. Pious platitudes. Delicate good taste. And then along comes Nick Farrell with his National Enquirer/ Daily Star red-top newspaper style... and out goes good taste, bang goes good manners: 

While it is possible that Jobs' is not dying, he has had the realisation that there is more to life than flogging expensive toys to spotty smug gits and it is time to spend some of the money he has earned enjoying himself, before it is too late

Worthy of Kelvin McKenzie at his "best"!