September 9 is a huge day! The iphone 6 will be announced tomorrow at 1 pm here (10 am Pacific time). Apple fans are also hoping the promised iwatch will also be announced.
Do you plan on upgrading? I am an apple fan but I collect stocks and ipads. I am an android user when it comes to phones. (sleeker, more flexibility, swyping and a larger screen)
Tomorrow is also Harvest Moon. I plan to go out with family and friends to my favorite Asian restaurant, just for good luck. Its just one of those ritualistic things I like to do. Harvest moon is also a good time to welcome my favorite season.
We all knew this day would come. We dreaded it. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has decided to step down immediately. Steve Jobs is an American iconoclast and culture changer. He and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer in Jobs’ parents’ garagen in 1976.
It has been one wild ride, through the end of the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, into the 21st century, from that big clunky Apple II to the sleek and sexy ipad and iphones. He became an arbiter of our tastes. He had vision. He saw things that we didn’t even know existed. He made us want things yet unseen.
Jobs has been ill. He has has a rare form of pancreatic cancer as well as a liver transplant. His health is very fragile and he announced he can no longer handle the job. He will serve as chairman of the board of directors of Apple. Jobs stated:
“I hereby resign as CEO of Apple,” he wrote. “I would like to serve, if the board sees fit, as chairman of the board, director and Apple employee. As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.”
Steve
The tech industry reacted violently over the Jobs’ abrupt resignation and Apple stock (aapl) dropped instantly, over $17 a share in overnight trading. The question now becomes whether or not Jobs is so integral to the company that his absence creates a weak link or has his genius set up a business paradigm that can weather his absence from the helm. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, expect some tech and industrial aftershock.
An authorized biography will come out in November.
For a brief, picture biography of Jobs’ career see USAToday.
Introduction to McIntosh in 1984. Jobs’ introduction of new products always became a world class event.
Its lineup of sleek phones, computers and iPods, irresistible to customers even in tough economic times, propelled it to the No. 1 position by market value Wednesday, surpassing Exxon Mobil. Apple’s stock on the open market is now worth more than any other company’s.
Apple’s stock fell for the day, but Exxon’s fell more. Apple finished with a market value of $337 billion, beating Exxon’s $331 billion. A single share of Apple stock now costs $363.
Apple occupies a rarefied spot once held by General Electric and Apple’s own rival Microsoft. Exxon had held the top spot since 2005.
The power shift is a substantial milestone for Apple, which has enjoyed a triumphant comeback since the 1990s, when it struggled to stay afloat before its co-founder Steve Jobs returned to take the helm.
But it’s not just the comeback. Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall says Apple is giving investors something that has never been seen before. Apple’s numbers are huge, with $30 billion in revenue in the latest quarter, for example. Yet Marshall said the 35-year-old company is “growing like a startup.”
“Even in 2008 and 2009 Apple grew like a weed and the world was coming to an end,” Marshall said.
Steve Jobs officially launched Apple’s new free iCloud service on Monday, which will replace its $99 a year MobileMe document-sharing plan. “We are going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud,” Jobs said at Apple’s World Wide Development Conference in San Francisco. The iCloud will store music and other documents on large digital servers instead of your own hard drives, and users can connect to the network anywhere they have internet access.
Now this sounds neat! Free cloud space. What is it supposed to do? Inquiring minds want to know. More importantly, will it jump-start the Apple stocks that have been laggards lately?
Apple, the tech behemoth, has resigned its membership in the US Chamber of Commerce, effective immediately because of the position taken on climate change by the organization. Apple follows on the heels of Nike who also just resigned.
According to the New York Times:
The New York Times reports that Apple’s resignation is effective immediately. Catherine Novelli, vice president of worldwide government affairs at Apple, called the chamber’s stance on climate change issues “frustrating” in aletter addressed to its president and CEO.
“We strongly object to the chamber’s recent comments opposing the E.P.A.’s effort to limit greenhouse gases. … We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis
.
Several energy companies have also left the Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, Bill Maher spoke explicitly and irreverently , as usual, on Friday night over the climate change issue:
Beyond a Reaonable Drought
According to Huffington Post, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), mentioned by Maher and known as the King of Global Warming Deniers, announced on C-Span over the weekend that he will go to Copenhagen later this fall to enlighten the scientists and he will present:
another view.” “I think somebody has to be there — a one-man truth squad,” he said. Throughout the program, Inhofe went through his tattered global warming denier claims: that climate change is a “hoax,” that CO2 is not a pollutant, and — latching on to the latest false right-wing talking point — that clean energy legislation will cost American families $1,700 a year
Bill Maher might be on to something. Forget science. Has anyone else noticed that the flowers and plants now last well in to November. Our 5 senses should be telling us something is different. When I was a kid, the growing season ended much earlier. Forget being a kid, when I was right out of college the growing season was shorter than it is now. Forget politics. Are there differences? Even if you don’t believe most of the scientists, are you willing to take the chance?
