Comments on: Why Steve Jobs' health matters more than Apple says

Steve Jobs' health matters. A lot. Let's hope Apple wakes up and realizes that.

[Tom Krazit]

Everybody who calls for Jobs' health status to be public information never says how Apple should disclose the state of his health.

What would be proper? His entire medical history? The results of his latest checkup? Honestly, what level of disclosure would really satisfy you?

Also, if Steve is fine, Apple simply can't announce today that he's in perfect health. What if his cancer returns next week? Shareholders could easily charge that Apple had been lying about his health and Apple would be in serious trouble. Likewise, if Apple's statement from WWDC that he had a common bug turns out to be a lie, people could go to jail.

Steering a middle ground by calling it private matter, assuming they aren't lying about him being healthy, is really all they can do unless he decides he wants to share his medical records with the public.

[punterjoe]

This reminds me of all those Soviet premieres, religious leaders (especially of insular or fringe sects), and other messianic figures who left their organizations scrambling when their human frailty collided with their cult of personality. It will be interesting to see if Apple can come up with a strategy to cope with this better than any of those other organizations.

[steve4lee]

You knew that a Soviet leader was on the way out when it was announced that he had a cold.

[Zaunto]

Maybe Wozniak needs to be more active in the company, because whether or not Jobs health is fine now, one day in the future it will not be. He's not going to live forever, so if Apple's success is dependent on the life of Steve Jobs, they are living on borrowed time and need to wake up and smell the coffee. The ego trip needs to end and Jobs needs to either get Wozniak more involved in decisions and operations or Jobs needs to find and groom a "number two" to take over for him when his health starts to fail or he wants to retire. Reality check kids!!