Steve Jobs, the creative force behind Apple, has steped down as CEO at the company he co-founded 34 years ago.
The move has been expected as Jobs has battled with lingering health issues in the aftermath of a 2003 battle with pancreatic cancer.
Jobs took leave from the company in 2009 and again in 2011. He underwent a liver transplant during his first leave of absence.
“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Jobs said in his resignation letter.”Unfortunately, that day has come,” he added.
In a written statement, Apple, the world’s second biggest company by market capitalization, announced that chief operating officer Tim Cook would take over as CEO but that Jobs would stay on as chairman of the board.
“Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company,” board member Art Levinson said in a statement.
No reason was given for Job’s resignation, but his health problems has fuelled speculation he would have to give up the everyday running of the company he co-founded in 1976.
Cook ran Apple when Jobs went on medical leave, and has essentially been running day-to-day operations since early this year with the company racking up record revenue and profit.
Jobs is seen as the heart and soul of Apple, with analysts and investors repeatedly expressing concern over how the Cupertino, Calif.-based company would handle his departure.
“The board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO,” Levinson said.
“Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does,” Levinson continued.
Jobs submitted his resignation on Wednesday and urged the board to implement its succession plan and name Cook as his replacement, according to Apple.
Cook was previously responsible for Apple’s worldwide sales and operations, including management of the supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries.
Jobs is the visionary behind the Macintosh computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.
Born on Feb. 24, 1955, in San Francisco to a single mother and adopted by a couple in nearby Mountain View at barely a week old, he grew up among the orchards that would one day become the technology hub known as Silicon Valley.
Jobs was 21 and Steve Wozniak 26 when they founded Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs’s family home in 1976.
While Microsoft licensed its software to computer makers that cranked out machines priced for the masses, Apple kept its technology private and catered to people willing to pay for superior performance and design.
Under Jobs, the company introduced its first Apple computers and then the Macintosh, which became wildly popular in the 1980s.
Apple’s innovations include the “mouse” to make it easy for users to activate programs or open files.
Jobs was elevated to idol status by ranks of Macintosh computer devotees, many of whom saw themselves as a sort of rebel alliance opposing the powerful empire Microsoft built with its ubiquitous Windows operating systems.
Jobs left Apple in 1985 after an internal power struggle and started NEXT Computer company specializing in sophisticated workstations for businesses.
He co-founded Academy-Awardwinning Pixar in 1986 from a former Lucasfilm computer graphics unit that he reportedly bought from movie industry titan George Lucas for $10m.
