Apple CEO Steve Job’s claims that he is fit enough to run Apple. Responding to analysts claims that he needs to come clean about the state of his health after appearing lean and gaunt at the mid Year Macworld Expo. He claims that a hormone imbalance has been “robbing” him of proteins and that the “nutritional problem” was treatable.
Jobs broke his silence 24 hours prior to the 2008 San Francisco Macworld where he will not be appearing after Apple said that this Macworld show would be their last.
In a letter released today, Jobs didn’t say exactly what was causing that hormone imbalance or what he and his doctors were doing to reverse his weight loss. But he said he would continue to run Apple in the meantime.
“I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO,” Jobs wrote in a letter to the “Apple community” released this morning. “I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.”
In a separate statement Apple said that it would give Jobs its “complete and unwavering support during his recuperation.” The board has supported him through health troubles in the past: It kept secret his bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer until he announced in 2004 that he had fended off the disease.
Analysts attending this week’s Macworld told ChannelNews that Jobs was the consummate showman and that “Macworld without Steve Jobs is just not Macworld”.
In his letter Job’s says “Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil [Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing] deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed,” Jobs wrote in today’s letter. “I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.”
