When Steve Jobs sneezes, Apple catches a cold

This week Apple announced its most successful financial quarter in the company's history. Sales surged, forecasts were surpassed. So why has the share price fallen through the floor, shedding more than 10 per cent in after-hours trading?

Investors are worried - worried about the health of the US economy and its effect on future technology sales; but worried in particular about the health of CEO Steve Jobs, and its effect on Apple.

Rumours about Jobs's fitness have been circulating ever since the announcement of the new iPhone back in June. On stage in San Francisco, he looked gaunt (right). Jobs had suffered from a rare form of pancreatic cancer back in 2004. As ever, bloggers and pundits were quick to cook up a story.

In an attempt to halt the online rumour mill, Apple issued a statement explaining that Jobs was taking antibiotics for "a common bug"; but the issue of Jobs's health returned this week during Apple's conference call to investors, when chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer was forced to respond to some uncomfortable questions.

People who have met with Jobs since his June appearance claim he still looks underweight; and he was notable by his absence from the conference call. Investors remain spooked. The problem is that an Apple without Steve Jobs is almost unimaginable.
 
Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, and helped run the company until 1985, when he resigned in the wake of a nasty boardroom battle. His departure coincided with the start of a troubled period for Apple in which poor marketing, fierce competition from Microsoft and a confusing product line left the company floundering.

Jobs returned with great fanfare in 1997, and is credited with single-handedly reinventing the company as the hothouse of consumer electronics innovation it is today. British designer Jonathan Ive might have given the iPod and the iMac their sleek, minimalist lines, Apple programmers wrote the code that powers its graceful OS X operating system... but the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone are all created in Jobs's image.
 
A notorious perfectionist and control freak, a strict vegan, famed for his black turtleneck sweaters and Buddhist beliefs, he carries about him the same aura of Zen that distinguishes the Apple lines from their less elegantly functional rivals.
 
The result is a situation unparalleled in the tech industry. Apple appears to be lacking a contingency plan. We know that Phil Schiller ­ senior vice-president of product marketing ­ is a possible successor. Apple has demonstrated a genius for marketing, and Schiller's been known to share the stage with Jobs at Apple events. Chief operating officer Tim Cook looked after Apple when Jobs was recovering from surgery in 2004 and has also been tipped as a possible full-time leader.

But neither has anything like Jobs's credibility or charisma - particularly in the eyes of the zealous legions of Apple evangelists who adore the man as much as the product. Has Apple allowed Jobs such an iconic status it's made him irreplaceable?

The Citigroup analyst who took the opportunity at Monday's investors' conference call to broach the subject of Jobs's health was told it was "a private matter". Of course, it really ought to be. But when investors reportedly sell shares on the basis of a man's apparent body fat percentage and complexion, clearly it just isn't. ·