Is Steve Jobs Hiding Apple’s Latest Secret?

Am I the only one who saw this? During the keynote address at Apple’s WWDC, Steve Jobs looked positively ill.

Is Apple hiding a secret? Is the Apple icon suffering from an illness of some kind? This isn’t the first time I’ve thought this.

Steve Jobs has looked and acted ill in each of the last two or three keynote addresses.

Of the last three, I’ve had the pleasure of attending one, though I’ve watched all of them closely as QuickTime movie downloads from the Apple site.

Monday’s WWDC keynote confirms my suspicion. I think Steve Jobs is ill.

Remember, it was barely two years ago he was diagnosed with cancer. My current observation is based on seemingly lackluster keynote performances.

No, it wasn’t the fact that no new iPods were announced at WWDC. I didn’t expect one. Neither did I expect an iPhone, or Mac tablet, or a media center.

Frankly, he and Apple delivered nearly what everyone thought they would—a sneak peak at OS X Leopard, and the PowerMac replacements with Intel chips, now dubbed the Mac Pro.

Besides Steve’s weak performance in presenting Apple’s new toys, the only surprise was dual Xeon chips in each Mac Pro, and the pricing.

That’s good for Mac users everywhere. What’s not good is what seems to be happening with Steve.

This keynote was a disappointment. Steve usually mesmerizes Macworld audiences, and even keeps WWDC attendees in constant applause. Such was not the case this year.

Back and forth, back and forth. First, Phil Schiller, then Steve, then Phil again, then Steve, then someone else, then Steve, then that other guy again.

Worse, Steve just didn’t look healthy. His face was haggard and gaunt, and his presentations, all of them, lacked the pzazz that’s normal for the charismatic Jobs.

Either Steve’s coming off a bad bout of the flu, or there’s something else keeping him thin and trim; both of which are OK if the specimen in question vibrates healthy vibes.

Steve’s not vibrating healthy vibes. He phoned it in.

At first, when it appeared that Steve was struggling to maintain a grip on the polite but not spellbound audience, I felt sorry for him.

That’s my view of the QuickTime presentation, which, by the way, blows up nicely on my nice new 23-inch Apple Cinema display—a month or so old, and now $300 lower in price.

Then I began to wonder. Is Steve prepping Apple users to simply get used to Steve not being around? Is it possible we’ll have a different CEO by the Macworld Expo in early 2007?

Is Steve Jobs sick? He looked it. His last three keynote presentations have not been stellar performances.

He appeared anemic, weak, and in need of a good meal, some sleep, and maybe a few days on the beach.

It should be obvious to all of us that Apple is doing well and the recent leadership changes at key positions haven’t caused the company to stumble or miss a beat.

But Steve’s position is different. He’s THE key to Apple’s success, and possibly THE key to Apple’s future.

While I drooled over the new Mac Pro line and those awesome dual 64-bit CPUs, I winced when Steve launched into OS X Leopard.

True, it’s tough to keep Mac users spellbound year after year on OS X upgrades. After all, it’s just the heart of a Mac, right? But this one was pure ho hum, nothing to see here, move along—incremental improvements at best.

Yes, Steve said he’s holding back some OS X Leopard secrets because Microftians at Redmond probably ordered extra copy machines from Xerox just for his keynote presentation, but…

The wad was shot from the beginning with the Mac Pro announcement.

Either Steve Jobs is ill and Apple’s not telling us, or his daily regimen of veggies isn’t as healthy as it once was.

What do you think? You’ll get a better view of Steve’s health by viewing Apple’s QuickTIme movie of the WWDC 2006 keynote presentation. Compare that to the 2005 WWDC presentation.