Steve Jobs is dying

I had this thought some months back and I thought I've written it down somewhere. I can't seem to find it. I don't remember if it was on a blog or just in a document. It doesn't matter. What's important was the idea that struck me as I watched one of Steve Jobs' keynote addresses. I can't remember whether it was this year's Macworld San Francisco or last year's WWDC. We all heard of his brush with cancer about three years back and how doctors said it was a resectable tumor. The brush with death made Steve Jobs reflect back on his life and looked towards the future. It was the time in between today and after the scare that Apple continuously topped its rivals whether in personal computing, portable audio and video, or online music sales. They had a renaissance, a renaissance brought about by the realization of one of its members of his own mortality.

I was excited for the company. Their main man had a vision and he was not afraid to share that vision. He had one life to live and live it he will. Apple held great promise and it delivered on those promises.

It was probably early last year that I realize something was wrong. I've seen my share of people with chronic illnesses and Steve Jobs looked just like one. Initially, I thought that he was in some kind of a diet that is supposed to help him recover from his illness. I guess the diet, though healthy, made him lose weight. I was in denial.

My suspicion of all was not well with Jobs was strengthened during the release of the iPod Hi-Fi and new Mac mini. I was startled at how Steve Jobs looked. He was thin, almost gaunt. His voice was not the same. Though he sounded just like the salesman he always is, there wasn't much force, much vivre in his speech. He also missed somethings during the present one of which was he failed to uncover the Mac mini (or was it the iPod Hi-Fi).

Steve Jobs has lost a lot of weight. More than any man who is on a diet. He appears tired and listless. He doesn't have the same energy as he used to have. But I can still hear the same conviction, the same drive in his voice. There are others who believe that Steve Jobs is not well. Others such as Bambi Hambi, SteveJack, and Leander Kahney.

I believe that within a year, the world will lose Steve Jobs. I believe that Steve Jobs already knows that he doesn't have much time left and medical science has done all that it can. The person who lead the revolution in personal computing has given his last WWDC keynote. There will no longer be a Steve Jobs in WWDC 2007. We probably will see Leopard earlier than spring next year. Leopard will be the last Mac OS X Jobs will ever see and those in Apple feels the urgency to finish it and release it.

What will the world be like without Steve Jobs? Probably the same. But for the millions of Apple fans, it changes everything. Many will mourn the day Steve Jobs leaves this earth and I will be one of them.

Thank you very much, Mr. Jobs, for everything. I promise to stay hungry and to stay foolish.