Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave of absence. Photo Credit: Ken Susumpow/Flickr.com/CC-BY

Apple stock tumbled slightly as Steve Jobs announced he was taking another leave of absence. Jobs announced at a recent Apple press conference that he was taking time off for health related reasons. Many fear he is struggling with cancer again.

Steve Jobs takes medical leave of absence

Recently, CEO of Apple Steve Jobs announced that he would be taking a medical leave of absence, for an unspecified illness, which resulted in a moderate decline of Apple stock, according to The Guardian. Shares of Apple Inc. fell by at least 4 percent in early New York trading, the day after the news had broken that Jobs was taking a step back for an unspecified amount of time.  Jobs said that he while he was taking a medical leave of absence, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook would be filling in as the acting Chief Executive Officer in Jobs’ absence. Jobs will still be involved in major decisions, though Cook will be running the day to day operations of Apple. An Apple earnings statement is anticipated sometime in the near future.

Third leave for medical reasons

This is the third time that Steve Jobs will be taking a medical leave of absence of indeterminate length. In 2004, Jobs underwent treatment for a cancer in his pancreas, though Jobs was actually diagnosed with an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, according to Reuters. That form of the disease is cancer of the endocrine system, which regulates hormones. Jobs also took a lot of time off in 2009 to undergo a liver transplant. During both leaves, Cook took over day-to-day operations for Jobs. The company remained successful, and the iPad was developed during the absence of Steve Jobs.

No word on cause

The reason for Jobs taking a medical leave was not disclosed, though speculation is running rampant that his cancer has returned. Apple has a lot on its hands, including the earnings report, the iPhone 5 and the iPad 2 due to be released in the near future.

Sources

The Guardian

Reuters

Steve Jobs let iPhone competitors have it at an Apple earnings conference, citing Apple's sales dominance. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Steve Jobs recently participated in an Apple earnings press conference. During the discussion of how well Apple Inc. stock is doing, Jobs took time to let loose on RIM (Blackberry) and Android platforms. He touted the fact that Apple sells more units of the iPhone than either platform and has better software to boot. An Apple event is scheduled soon, called “Back to the Mac” The event will likely discuss upcoming computers from Apple.

Jobs blasts RIM and Android at Apple earnings meeting

Steve Jobs made a surprise visit to a recent Apple earnings press conference. Earnings for Apple Inc. for the fourth quarter were substantial. He opened by saying he usually doesn’t attend such meetings, but he couldn’t resist talking about the first $20 billion quarter for Apple, according to Apple Insider. He also took some time to slam the competition. He pointed out that the iPhone outsold RIM Blackberry by 2 million units, and that Research In Motion had too far to go to catch up. He also pointed out that Android smartphones by Google activated 200,000 units a day to Apple’s 275,000.

Android tablets to die quickly

On the heels of the best quarter ever for the Apple stock price — AAPL just hit $300 a share — Jobs also felt he would weigh in on gripes about software and tablets. He said that Google’s claims about the iPhone being “closed” and Android being “open” were misleading. He also pointed out that the Android tablet PCs due out soon will be “dead on arrival” because a 7-inch screen is only a bit bigger than a smart phone. He opined that because Apple makes everything in house, the iPad is more bang for less buck than the competition.

Getting ‘Back to the Mac’

An Apple event is scheduled for Wednesday. It is called “Back to the Mac” and the topic, according to CNET will be the new hardware and Mac operating system.

Sources

CNET

Apple Insider

This is not what the Apple earnings report looked like.

Since the iPod renaissance that followed a reclusive streak in the 1990s, Apple has been a growing empire, and the Apple earnings for the most recent quarter have blossomed.  The company has been shipping huge volumes of the iPhone, and with the iPhone 4.0 and iPad beginning to take off, Apple is set to never need payroll loans again.  Even though recessions mean that fewer people buy toys, Apple posted impressive gains for the first quarter of this year.

Apple earnings from iPhone up over 100 percent

From this recent post on Marketwatch, the first quarter Apple earnings were substantial.  The iPhone drove sales through the roof, selling over eight million iPhones when they were expecting to only sell seven million.  Apple enjoyed a 130 percent sales increase on the iPhone from a year ago.  Since so many people are willing to plunk down money now on one of the most popular technological phenomenons of the last decade, it’s no wonder that Apple should be raking in the cash.  They have become a true success story not once, but twice, as apparently they make some vastly superior products.

They sold some Macs too

The report of Apple earnings also included some heavy sales for Mac computers as well.  Nearly three million Macs were purchased over the quarter, showing a sales increase for their computer brand of about 40 percent.  Apple managed to also sell over 10 million iPods, though the sales for the ubiquitous portable media player were actually slightly down. However, the decrease was in units, rather than revenue (iPod sales revenue was actually up about 12 percent.) The iPod touch has been quite the popular item as well.

What about the iPad?

No official sales figures were given by Marketwatch, but CNN reports that Steve Jobs had told a conference that Apple had sold around 450,000 units for the basic unit alone. The Cadillac model of iPad, set to come out soon, may have access to the AT&T 3G network, instead of the current model’s use of WiFi only.  That will probably send Apply stock through the roof, though they don’t really need the help – according to the Marketwatch piece, Apple stock was trading at almost $260 a share.

So what’s next for the Apple machine?

What is next for Apple is the iPhone OS 4.0, which was involved in the recent Gizmodo leak.  The prototype was returned. The new model iPhone will likely sell a lot of units, and since the iPhone OS 4.0 will also mark the rumored debut of the Verizon iPhone, it is foreseeable that Apple earnings will shoot to the moon by year’s end.

Image from Wikimedia.

While most companies are still striving to pull themselves out of recession slumps, Apple is back and better than ever. The company posted sales of more than  $10 billion for the past three months. That puts Apple earnings somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.7 billion in profit for that quarter.

Apple earnings are 46 percent higher for the past three months than they were for the same quarter last year.  The market for instant cash loans is also seeing an increase as Americans struggle to maintain financial stability, but many other retail and manufacturing sectors are still seeing declines in earnings.

All hail the iPhone

Despite the state of the economy, Apple earnings reflect the highest-ever sales of iPhones and Mac computers. This isn’t particularly surprising in the case of the iPhone, which has not been around very long. As some people have started to see smartphones as a necessity rather than a luxury, sales of iPhones have skyrocketed.

Not surprisingly, sales of the iPod have gone down slightly as sales of iPhones increased. Who would want a plain, old mp3 player when you could get a phone that has one built in? Increased sales of Mac computers are somewhat surprising, considering the emergence of inexpensive NetBooks, but apparently Apple has figured out how to recession-proof the popularity of its products.

Will Droid put a dent in Apple earnings?

In fact, Apple’s products such as the iPod and iPhone have made such an impact on consumers that they are being directly targeted by competitors. Verizon has started running commercials for Droid, its answer to the iPhone. The slogan for the Droid is “Everything iDon’t, Droid does.”

The “putting a lower case i at the beginning of a word” fad is so deeply ingrained in American consumers, in fact, that after word started traveling about the Droid commercials, people began searching for “iDroid” on Google.