So Himself is taking another medical leave of absence. Obviously I hope he makes it back healthy. He’s earned a nice quiet retirement, but I can’t see him ever taking it.
This is the part when I mention again that Apple may have the deepest bench of any tech company out there. COO Tim Cook, VPs Phil Schiller and Ron Johnson, Chief Design Wizard Jony Ive – there’s a lot of talent there and I strongly suspect AAPL will recover from the inevitable stock hit within a month or so. (Of course, I think $350 is running a little hot anyway. Of course, I was an idiot to sell at $210.) And Tim Cook is probably still over the moon from Auburn and their temporary national championship* so I’m sure things will hum right along for the foreseeable future.
Good time for it, if there can be such a thing – all the new stuff is out and right now we’re just in rev mode for the iPad and the like. I don’t know that the computers will take a big change now that the MBA has shipped except to get a little thinner and a little more SSD oriented. OS X 10.7 is underway, the iPhone is now on Verizon, it should be possible to switch to glide for a while without getting hurt. Now, if they can NOT switch to glide, then you have to feel really good about the future. If Himself has crafted a company that can run to the same levels of success without him, that would be his greatest feat at Apple.