CUPERTINO, Calif.—Steve Jobs resigned today as the CEO of the company he founded in 1976. Jobs, 56, sent the following letter to the Apple community:
To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. 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.
Though he has been outspoken in his distaste for pornography and his insistence that porn remain officially excluded from Apple content networks, including the Apple App Store, it would be hard for anyone to underestimate the impact that Apple has had on the proliferation of pornography and the manner in which people around the world have consumed adult content.
The introduction of the iPhone alone was a revelation for the industry in terms of its use as a catalyst for porn on mobile networks. Previous to the iPhone’s launch, mobile porn was all but stuck, unable to achieve any traction or excitement. All that changed the minute people had a chance to see porn on the iPhone and then the iPad.
But porn and Apple were buddies even before the iPhone. Like all graphic designers and digital artists, there is nary a design team or individual in adult who does not swear by his Mac as the quintessential tool for making superior graphics, images, photos and videos. To call that relationship one steeped in love is to cheapen it. It is more like a meeting of souls.
So it was with a sense of irony and a little sadness, anger and frustration that adult entertainment professionals had to listen over the years to Jobs’ periodic denunciations of their world. He hated porn even as he had helped make it a better product and improved the ways in which people could enjoy it. That fact, of which he cannot be ignorant, has probably provided him certain if unavoidable angst.
As far as the future goes, people in porn are already expressing their concern about what a Job-less Apple will mean for the company going forward, and by implication, for the industry and its millions of fans, so many of whom cannot imagine consuming its content on any device that does not contain that globally recognizable icon.
But all of that pales against the human dimension—the heath issues that precipitated Job's resignation—and it is safe to say that despite his disregard for adult entertainment, most people in the industry feel nothing but profound compassion for Steve Jobs, and only wish him and his family well.
Apple's Board of Directors has named Tim Cook the new CEO, while Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board. Reuters reported that after the news broke that Jobs had resigned as CEO, Apple shares fell 19 points or 5 percent, though they remained up for the day, closing at $376.18/share. Not gold, but still golden.
