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Apple's iPad 2 day: Will Jobs show?

By | March 1, 2011, 2:17pm PST

Summary: Apple’s iPad event is set for lift off and a lot of speculation swirls around whether CEO Steve Jobs may show up for the event. If Jobs shows it’s distraction time.

Apple’s iPad event is set for lift off and a lot of speculation swirls around whether CEO Steve Jobs may show up for the event.

BoomTown’s Kara Swisher reports that Jobs is definitely considering an appearance at the iPad event, but plans aren’t set yet. As you know, Jobs is on medical leave and tabloid speculation about the Apple CEO’s battle with pancreatic cancer is rampant.

Swisher then urges the press to show respect and keep the focus on the iPad. Nice thought, but one that’s highly unlikely. Why?

  • A Jobs’ appearance at an iPad event is a material event for Apple given the hubbub about succession planning.
  • Jobs’ appearance would also be notable since he didn’t turn up at a shareholder meeting.
  • And Apple’s market cap would fluctuate based on Jobs’ gait, appearance and armchair physicians trying to guess his weight.

In the end, there’s little to no chance that anyone would focus on the actual iPad product if Jobs appears. Sure, he’s playing a home game with the tech press in attendance, but rest assured Radar, National Enquirer and a bunch of others will have the Apple event staked out. That reality is why it’s a bit hard to believe that Jobs would show up for any serious length of time. Jobs could show, but he—not the iPad—would be the main event. The attention on Jobs would be unavoidable given the billions of dollars riding on him.

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Topics

Job, Steve Jobs, Apple iPad, Apple Inc., Apple iPad Event, BoomTown, Leadership, Training And Development, Human Capital Management, Management, Human Resources, Workforce Management, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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Jobs
Gis Bun 2nd Mar 2011
Jobs showed up live. Looks frail.

Some say that you should wear black to look thin. He was wearing black and really looks thin.

For the first [?] time, camera crews were there live. i wonder if it was because Jobs showed up.

Wondered if he commented on the National Enquirer story about him having months to live.
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this situation is ridiculous.
paulhknight 1st Mar 2011
!
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Even with Jobs present, besides few tabloids, the event will be about iPad2
DeRSSS 1st Mar 2011
@paulhknight: also, additional promotion will help to spread the news about new tablet's appearance.

So Jobs may disregard these concerns and appear.

If iPad 2 will be intermediate product without Retina display, then Job's appearance may actually help since it will make more out of the event (evolutionary update of specifications) that it will be.
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It won't damage ipad2 sales, I'm sure, but...
paulhknight 1st Mar 2011
@denisrs I think if an analysis of his gait, if he does appear on stage, is directly affecting share prices, which I agree is probably the case, then I don't think the succession is being managed well enough. This "on leave but not on leave" mode is only perpetuating the debilitating fear that he is irreplaceable. At some point, maybe quite soon, even Steve Jobs will become a liability for Apple.
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RE: Apple's iPad 2 day: Will Jobs show?
Cylon Centurion 1st Mar 2011
All this talk of Jobs and many are saying he /= Apple. I disagree, if all this talk is any indication, Jobs = Apple.

This would be the first Apple announcement without him.
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RE: Apple's iPad 2 day: Will Jobs show?
Bookmark71 1st Mar 2011
Personally, I'm just hoping for two things. To see a cool new product unveiled tomorrow that inspires its competitors and a man I don't personally know get some good news from his doctor very soon.
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RE: Apple's iPad 2 day: Will Jobs show?
illegaloperation 1st Mar 2011
The is exactly what I am wondering. I don't even care about iPad 2G, but want to see if Jobs show up.
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I hate to sound callous (or even ghoulish)
TheWerewolf 1st Mar 2011
But I kind of hope Jobs has left the stage permanently. (No - not as in 'died' but as in 'leave on a high note and get on with getting back into good health'...)

The new Apple since Jobs return has been a nasty place with bad attitude and branding replacing commonsense. The Mac has been marginalised and it's no longer 'the computer for the rest of us' - that's become the dumbed down iPhone and iPad givng us an entire generation of people who are loudly proud of their inability to deal with any kind of complexity (That tablet is TERRIBLE - it has SIX buttons.. that's way too many...).. a generation of the proudly mentally challenged.

The other problem is more fundamental - a company CANNOT depend on one person like Apple does on Jobs. Everyone dies. Everyone gets tired. Apple has all its eggs in one basket. It might be better to tip the basket NOW while Apple's ahead and can recover, than to wait.

The shareholders of Apple are blinded by the short term success - and I think maybe ignoring the upcoming wall that Jobs' departure will slam them into.
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It's not mentally challenged to want things simple
The Star King 2nd Mar 2011
@TheWerewolf The Model T Ford was very complicated to drive. It had loads of buttons and levers modern drivers wouldn't recognise. Slowly it was replaced -- due to competition -- by cars that were simpler to drive. Are modern car drivers "a generation of the mentally challenged"? no, they simply want to spend less of their lives learning to drive a car and more on their actual jobs (complicated enough thank you very much) and families.
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RE: Apple's iPad 2 day: Will Jobs show?
attoman 2nd Mar 2011
What is with you sick people? Let the man go!

Jeesh he's been doing this for 35 years. He is dying, let him go....
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I think...
condelirios 2nd Mar 2011
He should show up via Facetime on the iPad2 Facetime demo. Tim Cook could Facetime him and then it could be just a face shot... no guessing his weight, shoe size or anything.. and it would show off the Facetime capability.
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Jobs
Gis Bun 2nd Mar 2011
Jobs showed up live. Looks frail.

Some say that you should wear black to look thin. He was wearing black and really looks thin.

For the first [?] time, camera crews were there live. i wonder if it was because Jobs showed up.

Wondered if he commented on the National Enquirer story about him having months to live.

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