Several analysts have recently noted that the company didnt spiral into destruction during Jobs potentially permanent(!) absence last year and Phil Schillers workmanlike if boring stewardship. This augurs well for those only devoted to their portfolio valuation.

Personally I agree with this view that if Jobs ever went, it would not mean that the company could no longer be successful given most peoples perceptions of success, by which I mean the share price might wobble quite a bit but over the long term rise or double or triple.

However I do believe it would be a deep tragedy for those of us who believe Jobs not just to be an inspired visionary but one of the if not the most singularly impressive CEOs in the world today, capable of eschewing focus group babble, boardroom myopia, and a rather dim if not neanderthal-like view of what customers want that seems to prevail at a lot of other companies I will not care to mention.

Like him and his company or not, that is a major reason why so much talk of him is inextricably linked to the share price of apple. How many other tech CEOs can we each name? Im betting not that many on average. Its an irony really that Apple once fired Jobs and sent him off into the wilderness for many years... even more ironic that Jobs hired the guy to help him run the company, and he soon after turned the board against Jobs and had him dismissed. Fairly hard to imagine that happening now!