Although rumors about Apple CEO and founder, Steve Job’s failing health have been more than an open secret for a number of years, when the news broke in late August that he was to stand down immediately , a tremor was felt, not only across the computer hardware and software industry, but throughout the entire developed World.

Such has been the giant shadow that the fifty-six year old Jobs has cast over the computer industry, and the obvious downfall that his beloved Apple company went through when he has taken time out in the past, firstly due to a boardroom fall out and latterly when Jobs took leave of absence when his illness began to emerge a few years ago.

When the news eventually broke that Jobs would be leaving his post, most industry pundits expected that Apple’s share value would drop, and probably dramatically. Their predictions looked being proved to be true after the shares did drop by around three percent in the first few days. Yet, after that, they have begun to rally and now show a steady increase. Analysts, in a possible attempt to save face, are now stating that the shares had been undervalued for some time due to the uncertainty of Jobs and Apple’s future.

That fact that a strong successor to Jobs, Tim Cook, who has been with the company for a number of years, was named immediately after the resignation announcement obviously played its part. Strongly endorsed by Jobs, Cook is known and respected in the industry and rated more than capable of leading Apple in their continuing role as industry giant.

As the dust settles on a post-Jobs Apple it is difficult not to look back on the charismatic founder’s remarkable role in carving out the computer industry, With Apple now regarded as the leading computer software and hardware innovator leaving Microsoft in second place the reason has to be the remarkable success of Job’s development and of the iPhone, and its counterparts the iPad and the iTablet. These products have reshaped the face of communication technology in the 21st century and have left every one of Apple’s competitors very far behind in terms of product development.

You cannot look back on Job’s often stormy first tenure at Apple without recalling the development of the Apple II series of desktop computers, followed a few years later by the Macintosh. When Jobs left the company that he had founded in the late sixties to form NeXT in 1985, he was so conspicuous by his absence at Apple that the company really began to founder.

When he was persuaded by Apple to come back into the fold in 1995, largely because Apple bought out NeXT, Jobs was back to the place he felt best in and his innovative genius was once again stamped on the products they produced. Not only had that but his marketing ability soon pushed Apple back to the forefront where they have remained ever since.

How do you see Apple's future without Steve Jobs? Comment below!

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