Steve Jobs Retirement Causes Earthquakes, Rain and Hurricanes

After a 7-month-long medical leave, Steve Jobs has announced his retirement as CEO of Apple, Inc. He'll remain with the company as Chairman of the Board; meanwhile, former COO Timothy Cook will officially assume the role he's unofficially been fulfilling since Jobs first took leave.

While it's easy to say that people buy Apple products whether or not Steve Jobs is around, it's hard not to be a little nervous. Apple's stock value fell immediately after the announcement, but bounced by the end of the day. It's also impossible not to point out his responsibility for the huge success of the company. Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research said it even more dramatically, "Apple is Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs is Apple, and Steve Jobs is innovation."

According to legend, Jobs founded the company in a garage in 1976 with a friend he met during a summer job at Hewlett-Packard. The launch of the company's first success, the Apple II followed a year later. But after the launch of the Macintosh computer, internal relations became tense and Jobs was forced out of the company in 1986.

Fast forward another ten years to 1996, when Jobs returned to Apple. Do you remember what happened to Apple in the years between? Yeah, us neither. There was the Apple II GS many people had in their homes during the late 80's, but it wasn't until after Jobs returned that we saw the candy-colored iMacs we all craved. Then came iTunes, iPod, MacBook, iPhone, iPad... On the other hand, you know what Jobs did in those ten years away from Apple? He founded the educational computer company NeXT and one of the most successful animation studios to date, Pixar. Yeah.

Jobs will be the first to say the hiatus was good for him, but the company clearly needed his vision. However, optimists assert that with Jobs acting as Chairman, CEO Tim Cook and an all-star posse supporting him (made up of Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design; Scott Forstall, who is in charge of the iOS software that powers the iPhone and iPad; and Philip Schiller, who leads product marketing), the company is still destined for greatness.

Apple employs more than 3,000 people in Austin and has low-profile partnerships with other Austin based companies like Intrinsity Inc., and Samsung Electronics Co.

In the year when Apple Inc. surpassed Exxon-Mobile as the most profitable company in the world, Apple is entering a whole new era with this achievement and the retirement of Jobs. His resignation, more than anything, serves as a reminder of what Apple was, and how the company has grown by staying true to its grassroots, innovative foundation.

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