This probably deserves a longer post, but I just wanted to make a few quick observations about Steve Job's announcement today that he will be taking a 6-month leave of absence.
1. From a corporate finance perspective this is nuts, we are in a deep recession, near-depression where trust is one of the most valuable assets. And here we basically have confirmation of what most of the "in-the-know" people have known for a long time, that is that Job's is dying. But Apple has decided that lying about this is better. That is short-term thinking and untrustworthy. They will pay for this
2. This lack of disclosure is very much in Apple's DNA. They are a closed company. Music with DRM everywhere (that is now changing with iTunes+ but too little too late I say), iPods and iPhones you have to hack or jailbreak to get to function like a normal device and so on and so forth. Open always beats closed, in corporations, in technology, in society and so on. Apple's had a great run, but this closed system of theirs, and the corporate structure that it gives birth too has caught up to them. The "IBM-Compatible" machine won the 1980's platform war, and not because of the IBM part of the equation.
3. I hope apple sticks around, not cause I look forward to their new devices or their new laptops etc, but because they are the constant reminder that to win, to stay competitive, companies products and devices must constantly become more flexible, more adaptive and more useful or design and UI-geeks will catch you. If we didn't have an iPhone, we wouldn't have a Palm Pre. If we didn't have OS X, we wouldn't have windows 7. Apple is important in what it inspires others to do. And that's an important role indeed.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry