CNBC: Steve Jobs is back at Apple – Update

Glad Jobs is back, knock off the comments about the issues of Heart Vs Liver transplant, you can't live without either. Also, so what if Jobs got a liver because of privilage, the employees of his companies benefit from all of the research on all medical progress , so Jobs is just another live ginea pig. He deserved any benefit he gets considering the things he's done with his solitary life! The influence , the support and the risk Jobs took to do what he has done is proof enough of who and what he stands for, in the final analyses , it takes Honesty and Integrity to acheive greatness and it takes the same to stay great. God bless you Steve Jobs on "The Journey".

Also , I received a Heart Transplant @ Stanford on Oct, 23 '06. So , I can speak for just what the transplant journey is! Stephen M. Harrelson

Holy fruit, someone must have been reading my rants on this blog, from 4 out of 5 Apple-related headlines on the Technology panel on CNNfn to, to…zero!

Wow, and that on a Jobs-intensive week!

But it may be just a six-sigma coincidence, you never know.

Jonesy, I don’t disagree with you, though what you said is incomplete, although the vast majority of people who buy Apple products do not feel any moral obligation to promote Apple, I would say that a to a very big proportion of them, it gives some kind of warm feeling – just think about an opposite example – do people feel “good” when buying a MS or Sony product? I don’t know these people, but I also DON’T know any media journo or broadcaster who doesn’t mile to lick it to the white fruit (“cool”, “user friendly”) and (sometimes subtly) ridicule its competitors. Note for example a recent titled “Intel has another run at phones” – implying that Intel has already tried and failed, the tome is kind of ridiculing. Why? That’s because Intel is tying with Nokia, defying the domination of Apple.

Another big proportion of Apple buyers are “bandwagoners” who are influenced by the free promotion of Apple by the mainstream narrative of the media – as a cool nimble underdog of a company with stylish products that can only succeed and grow exponentially (from a small base, mind you, Apple can not be seen as the dominant bully of a colossus that it really is).

Also, but not connected to the issues above, the number of Apple devices sold is not a good indicator of Apple customers – most people buy more than one device (I remember a blogger that boasted that he bought “untold number of iPods”…another writer bragged that he liked it when an iPod broke down, because it gave him an excuse to buy another Apple gadget).

And judging by the number of “you Sir are an idiot” attacks on any writer with insufficient adulation to Apple, there should be significantly more that “tens of thousands” of “fanatics”.

Asher Pat, there are not millions of people who are "buying Apple products and showing their loyalty without direct tangible benefit for them." The group of religious Apple fanatics numbers only in the tens of thousands. The 230m iPhones/iPods sold and 50m Macs sold since 4Q99 have been bought by millions of people who do not "feel any moral obligation to promote the commercial entity called Apple Inc."

Successful innovators always get more attention from the press. Mark just highlights the one key difference that accounts for why Apple gets more attention for their innovations than other innovators (who might actually innovate more).

Marc from Boston, you must be wasting your career on whatever you are doing instead of being a top-star strategic consultant. Let me understand, so the prescription for hi-tech companies is:

1. NEVER put out spec sheets;

2. NEVER produce ugly looking products, and

3. NEVER put it (whatever it is) in long, rambling techese-nerdy speak

And hey presto, 4 out of 5 articles on CNNfn Technology sub-panel! And the magical Apple-style free promotion/devotion of the media and customers! Man, how come no one thot about it before!?

Now seriously, I did not mean to demean Mark, but the truth is much deeper. Apple does have exceptional products, perhaps the best in their class, but their success since 2001 is due in large part to the mass non-coordianted mobilisation of individuals (including in the mainstream media) who identify NOT with the BRAND, but with the ENTITY of Apple (embodied in a person – Jobs). These individuals feel moral obligation to promote the commercial entity called Apple Inc, including devoting their own monetay resources (buying Apple products and showing their loyalty without direct tangible benefit for them.

No Marc, Apple is a phenomenon that transcends the commercia logic and is closer to a religion or a cult, including having its owm messiah. I wish Sgteven Jobs great health but I can not be a part of any cult, but it is interesting to show cult-members a mirror, they will of course not bother to see thier own reflection an keep on chanthing the cult's mantra!

Jeez, would they'd have made this big a deal if Steve had a heart transplant. Apple said he'd be back and he is, so what exactly is the problem. Did the WSJ really need to release this info on the weekend of the million unit iPhone sale? Most likely to manipulate the share price.

Don't most liver transplant recipients have a five year survival rate, so it's not like he's going to be dead within the year or next year, so why the urgency about these liver articles? I thought I'd see at least a little pop in share price due to the record iPhone sales, but instead it's downsville and liver for this week.

To answer Asher Pat: Because Apple knows how to present its products and information in a way that people can understand and relate to real use in their lives.

When many others innovate (and no doubt there are many that do), they often put out spec sheets, hide it in ugly looking products, or put it in long, rambling techese-nerdy speak. So Apple's both real innovations and "copy-cat"-but-improved-catch-ups seem to be the only innovation in both the computer market and cell phone market.

All this fuss over a cell phone. Some one should take CNBC's Jim Goldman on a "snipe hunt", only tell him he's looking for Steve Jobs. I agree with Asher Pat, for a company that has a 7.4 percent of the computer market and a bearly noticable percentage of the cell phone market, they seem to be able to get a large amount of media coverage.

Nice to hear that Steve is recovering well, he brings so much to Apple as the public face and with the launch of the new iPhone proving a big success they definitely need him now.

Darryl

Technology

Apple: 1 million new iPhones sold

Ads coming to Twitter feeds

Scenes from the iPhone launch

All eyes on Steve Jobs

Apple's iPhone 3G S debuts

The above is a snapshot of the "Technology" sub-panel (or whatever it is called) on CNNMoney main home page.

I want to stress (as usual) that I am not AAPL hater or shorter, but it puzzles me why is it, that 4 out of 5 headlines above are about Apple (and there is even another one at the main "Latest News" panel), and this is not exceptional, usually there are two or three. Does it make sense? Is Apple really 80% of the technology sector? Why does the media feel such devotion and sympathy to such an overwhelmingly dominant player as Apple?

He's been seen here! And there! Not only that, he is alive and well! He will definately come back to us! He proclaimed that the righteous cause is "winning"!

Reminds you of something?

Well a religion must have its messiah. Funny, that even a religion of the geeks, like Apple (despitethat its proponents every second word is "cool") which is a "technology" driven religion must also have a human rather than a mechanical messiah. I guess a religion and a messiah is a part of human nature.

like AppleIIGS

Steve Jobs is like Elvis…a ghost that everyone seems to spot. I find it interesting in this Newsy report that there is no credible source indicated in the WSJ article that mentions that Jobs underwent the liver transplant in Tennessee.

http://www.newsy.com/videos/the_core_of_the_apple