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I won't click.

Lyons is an arrogant a$$hole, with an unlimited view of himself.

What a schmuck. I won't click either.

Jan 12, 09 - 10:56 am Comment from: ron

For a Prick - No Click.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:00 am Comment from: IKON

No think, no click.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:02 am Comment from: HMCIV

If Steve Jobs is a petulant narcissist, that what does that make Fake Steve Jobs?

Wow I suddenly feel awkward and uncomfortable.

"it is Gates, his archnemesis, who will likely go down in history as the classy one: the one who knew how to exit gracefully, the one who is devoting the later years of his life, and all of his billions, to helping the world's poorest people..."

Oh, PLEASE DON"T GET ME STARTED!!! Gates is assuaging his guilt, much like Carnegie did a hundred years ago. I am happy for any that are helped in some way by Gates' ill-gotten gains, but to gloss over the fact that he lied and cheated his was into those billions is egregious. Even today, Gate's Foundation behalves questionably. As always, Gates continues to use his wealth as leverage to get people to do what HE wants. That is all well and good, but it is NOT charitable. Lyons is either blind or stupid. Either way, it is obvious that he bears a grudge against Jobs, and will write any piece of nonsense in his attempt to smear him.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:03 am Comment from: 84 Mac Guy

MDN you got it wrong. Lyons writes for Newsweak.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:04 am Comment from: HMCIV

Also, "bumbling idiot" fails to describe the malice we know Ballmer is capable of.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:05 am Comment from: Jubei

Its a shame that Levy was replaced by this guy by Newsweek. What were they thinking?

Pure comedy!!! I can only think of Bill Gates classy "Seinfeld Commercials". That is how I will remember Gates. Oh yeah, and the head of a monopoly that produced some of the worst software on earth. Danny Boy is pure comic genius! Keep up the GREAT work!

Unless Lyons follows Steve Jobs around all day and knows exactly what he does, this is all Apple Hater masturbation.

Does Lyons even know how little credibility he has?

Jan 12, 09 - 11:09 am Comment from: G4Dualie

Lest we forget, Lyons used to pretend to be Steve Jobs. How pathetic is that?

If Jobs was such a narcissist he would keep doing Macworld expos because nothing gave him publicity like a Macworld keynote.

Apple doesn't have a clear succession plan? Maybe that's because Jobs has no intention of resigning anytime soon, just like his letter said. Guys like Lyons are acting as if Jobs is going to retire or die tomorrow.

I guess when you get outed as "Fake Steve Jobs" you get bitter.

I Wish I were a fanboy, but I'm too objective to be one, so I clicked. He had a lot of valid points:

"Last summer, Jobs called a New York Times columnist a "slime bucket" for having the audacity to inquire about his health."

Wow, Steve sure is a real class act!

"Who is the heir apparent? No one knows. And that's a problem."

Absolutely. Merely stating there are "many potential successors" is not being straightforward.

Say what you will about MS, Gates, Ballmer, but the transition was indeed smooth, and Gates should be credited for that.

Time also had an article on Steve Jobs and his possible successors. They handled it much more even handed and pointed out that while what Apple would be without Jobs is unknown, there are many qualified successors.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:17 am Comment from: justme2

Perhaps Apple has its succession plan in place, but doesn't want to spread FUD by letting it become public. "OMG -- Apple has a succession plan! Jobs must really be dying!" and the stock drops 25%.

Hey, what's Microsoft's succession plan? With Ballmer's temper he could keel over from a heart attack any day...not to mention having to travel in Seattle traffic...

I bet many Microsoft shareholders wish they had a petulant narcissist as CEO.

Grats to clicked for being objective.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:22 am Comment from: MacSheikh

"...a petulant narcissist with a grandiose sense of his importance and a sadly limited view of the world around him."

Lyons always says these words to himself before he starts the day every morning and before he goes to sleep at night, just to give his self confidence a boost.

How does Lyons get away with calling Steve Jobs those names anyway? The things he said are a bit beyond the pale even for a political figure who are fair game but rarely get such invective directed against them.

Steve Jobs is not a political or "public" figure in the same sense. If I was he, I would be looking at charges against Lyons.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:27 am Comment from: SirROM

Of course what this scheming “writer” is attempting to do is spread FUD in the exact hope of getting Jobs out of Apple. It would not be a surprise to learn that Lyons is regularly getting “compensation” from Apple's competitors to sow this kind of tripe. These other companies cannot beat Apple in a real fight on the field of business, so they hope to foment dissension and unrest in the ranks -- basically cause betrayal from within when the enemy cannot win from without.

That makes Lyons either a pawn of these outside companies, a mean-spirited jealous spite, or more likely a Dvorak-wannabe hit whore who is the biggest “petulant narcissist” of all by his own behavior.

Hey clicked, do us all a favor, please go get your self a baseline phisical w/ extensive bloodwork, tell about you sexual partners for the last 10 years, tell us about your use or nonuse of drugs/alcohol. please include your name, address, employer and insurance company and I will be happy to inform all of them as well as post it in the internet since privacy is that big of a deal to you.

Jan 12, 09 - 11:40 am Comment from: GmanMac

Steve Lyons need to go back to doing Fake Steve, that was actually worth reading.

lol!

I'm not the (celebrity) CEO of mutli-billion dollar multi-national corporation that has billions of dollars of people's money invested in it. I'm sure you'd be happy if I croak today, but no one will even notice. But if something happens to SJ and Apple is left without a leader, I think that would cause a little more consternation than my passing.

I wonder how much 'short' money he invested in Apple...

Daniel Lyons is a petulant narcissist with a grandiose sense of his importance and a sadly limited view of the world around him.

Even worse he's a click whore.

"Clicked" is a petulant narcissistic TROLL with a grandiose sense of his importance and a sadly limited view of the world around him.

I wish I was a petulant narcissist with a grandiose sense of my importance and a sadly limited view of the world around me... oh, wait, that does describe me!

Gates "classy".

ROTFL

Daniel Lyons is obviously still writing for laughs. He can't possibly mean that.

Gates is a toad - and dishonest.

Here's a very shifty Gates being interrogated by US government lawyers:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=II1Z7B5KQkM

"Do recall being told that ...?"

Jan 12, 09 - 12:04 pm Comment from: Shadowself

There are people in the press who will not be happy until Jobs is dead, and they can say, "I told you so!" (even if it is 40 years from now!)

There are also those who will support those idiots.

All kinds exist.

You would have to be a complete fool to believe that a CEO succession plan is not in place. It may not be detailed, naming names, but a rough plan is in place. You'd also have to be a complete fool to think that Apple's board has not discussed this topic quite thoroughly and quite regularly given the furor that has erupted so many times over the last few years. (Even when Jobs was 100% healthy -- before any cancer scare -- there were reporters speculating that Jobs would leave Apple for Disney or some other company.)

These "reporters" don't care about fact or fiction. They are only writing to get their words on the web or on the page -- the more sensational the better. They have no other interest in life.

Jan 12, 09 - 12:05 pm Comment from: ndelc

Geez, where does all this animosity come from with Dan? Did he ride in an elevator with Steve once or something?

His comparison to MS is ridiculous, because there's no transition going on at Apple! Steve said he's fine and he intends to continue to lead the company. That's all anyone needs to know. He could be there for another 20+ years. And as someone else posted above, they probably do have a succession plan, they just aren't making it public for fear that the market would take it to mean that Steve is sick.

The irony is, the scaredycat shareholders are hurting themselves by being so concerned about this. If they'd just shut up and trust Apple, who has garnered amazing results in the last 13 years since Steve's return, they'd earn more money.

Sheesh. Who pissed in his Corn Flakes™?

Jan 12, 09 - 12:17 pm Comment from: ElderNorm

@ Clicked,
"Say what you will about MS, Gates, Ballmer, but the transition was indeed smooth, and Gates should be credited for that."

Lyons, Stop that and go back home. Your mother called and she said you forgot to flush the toilet again..... Too much crap backing up everywhere. Just like your writing.

Just a thought.
en

lol, this guy must have sand in his vagin.... a

"Jobs is an arrogant a$$hole, with an unlimited view of himself."

Fixed that for you, no charge of course.

Jan 12, 09 - 12:20 pm Comment from: ElderNorm

PS. MDN, Please start adding a note to let us know if articles allow comments. I went to Lyons article, read it then left a comment. If readers see well worded comments that indicate that the writer is seriously lacking, .... well, you never know. It could help set people straight about the writers real motive.

Just a thought.
en

Lyons is just another slime in a long line of Microsoft leg humpers. The last thing these maggots want is for Apple to do well. It's not about shorting, it's about destroying the brand on behalf of the Microsoft mediocrity cult.

If it weren't Jobs, it would be something else.

...it is Gates, ... the one who is devoting ...all of his billions, to helping the world's poorest people

Really? All of his billions? I don't think so.

He's helping the world's poorest people to get access to internet using [drum roll] Windows machines.

Thank you very much.

Who said Apple does not have a successor to Jobs? This is the best run company that we know of and it does not leave anything unattended, especially something as important as the question of succession to the position of SJ. But if you follow Apple's modus operandi, this is kept extra secret, and will not be revealed until it's time to do so.

Surely, what Lyings wrote was SARCASM?!? How could it not be?

He wrote, ""Compare Jobs's recent recklessness to the way Microsoft managed the delicate hand-over of the company from Bill Gates to Steve Ballmer.""

Did you see it? He called the shift from Gates to Ballmer a "delicate hand-over". Anyone who knows anything about Ballmer, would never describe anything involving him as a "delicate hand-over"! Surely, Lyings is jesting.

Most companies, most Fortune 500 companies do NOT have an announced succession plan. It's rare that they do. Why?

Well, all those top Execs who would like the job, but are not the chosen one, would leave.

Why is it that Apple is always held to some mythical standard that is not the norm?

This guy is more disturbed than Dvorak. Dvorak likes getting people riled up- Lyons has an agenda- destroy the Real Steve Jobs.

Seriously, I cancelled my subscription to Newsweek based on this fact alone (plus, I just wasn't reading the damn thing).

Jan 12, 09 - 12:49 pm Comment from: DanielM

Why wouldn't we see more of this type of editorial?

Afterall, look at what has been reported here, on Macworld and AppleInsider.

Organizations that use the Apple/Mac name give space for such crap. And we let them.

Then we let a'holes dis Jobs just about for everything, slam the keynote, troll our blogs and nary a comment on Balmer's presentation.

And we wonder why our PC friends laugh at us?

Jan 12, 09 - 12:55 pm Comment from: Ray

Clearly yet another candidate for running Apple better than Jobs. Do you know how many PC's and Phone Lyons has sold? 0. But that is not the point. The point is that we and others feel they have finally found a way to undermine Apple. The Successor Angle.

just my $0.02

Thanks a ton, Lyons! Now you've ticked off Steve and he will be at Apple for the next 20 years, just on raw, pure, sheer determination.

The real mark of Gates' genius was his decision to go, because he knew well before he went that the very best days were behind him.

Gates went before the Microsoft tyres wore down and the Microsoft clutch needed replacing. Since nobody can fix these things he got off thus ensuring he has a blameless future.

Jan 12, 09 - 01:26 pm Comment from: DanielM

I do have to admit that Gates' exit was pretty classy.

In fact, I hear that Pixar is going to make a movie based on the move. Title is still in dispute. Titanic II and An American Entail are top of the running. Seems the producers are keen on breaking into the top ten box office hits for its genre. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=mouse.htm

Jan 12, 09 - 01:38 pm Comment from: twilightmoon

Clicked: I Wish I were a fanboy, but I'm too objective to be one, so I clicked

Umm.. can't say if you're objective or not, remains to be seen....



"Last summer, Jobs called a New York Times columnist a "slime bucket" for having the audacity to inquire about his health."

Wow, Steve sure is a real class act!

He may or may not be, depending on your point of view, he's Jobs has long been known to be hot tempered, he's fired an employee who rode an elevator with him because the employee couldn't clearly describe what he did at the company.

That said, that reporter certainly was a slime bucket. There was no evidence Jobs was ill at the time other than he'd lost weight, and the reporter made it a mission in his life to try to "out" Jobs for his "health problems". With no evidence, this just played into the whole stock manipulators' games, so he was a slime bucket.


"Who is the heir apparent? No one knows. And that's a problem."

Absolutely. Merely stating there are "many potential successors" is not being straightforward.

It's not a problem. Jobs is not stepping down. Companies have no responsibility to lay out a public succession plan unless the CEO is stepping down. This is not asked of or required of other companies, and Jobs is not the only CEO who's ever had a health problem.

For someone who claims they are objective, I don't see it, you seem to be just as opinionated and frankly wrong as Lyons. The only credit I'll give you is that you don't seem to be a "hit whore" like he is, cashing in on your views.

That doesn't make you any less wrong.

Pretty arrogant and even more stupid to demand that a 53 year old who is recognised as presently the most influential and successful tech boss by far should retire just because another guy patently out of his depth these days and whose last good idea (to con a big company and a lowly software engineer) was 30 years ago recently did so. Maybe Lyons should be thinking about retiring himself if that's the best argument he can muster. If not perhaps his bosses might help to persuade him.

Jan 12, 09 - 02:32 pm Comment from: DLMeyer

He very much IS a "petulant narcissist" ... and your point is ... ? I don't care if he eats live kittens for breakfast ... well, maybe ... as long as he keeps the company focused ... REALLY focused. So far, so good. I don't adore every toy the company has built, but I recognize the quality. Apple is in some danger, as a provider of "boutique" products, that their products will not be seen as worth the extra cost, or that the extra value is not worth the cost. I don't see that day coming soon, though a deep depression could have that effect.