Contentinople - Erin Barker - News Bits: Apple + Liver = ?

Written by Erin Barker

Monday, June 22. 2009 at 11:00 AM EDT Post a comment

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As you've probably heard by now, it's been revealed that Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs had a liver transplant about two months ago. [Ed. note: Oh Steve... Why must you keep secrets from us?] But what effect will this news have on Apple as the market opens today?

Charles Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. , told BusinessWeek the news could turn out to be a positive for Apple's investors, removing some of the uncertainty surrounding Jobs's condition and his ability to remain at Apple.

However, much of his condition is still shrouded in mystery. A report from Bloomberg has suggested that Jobs may have had the liver transplant because his pancreatic cancer, for which he was treated in 2004, had returned and spread.

Even aside from that, liver transplants are controversial since "livers are scarce and the surgery's efficacy as a cure hasn't been proved," The Wall Street Journal said in its original report.

Jobs is due to return to Apple soon, after going on medical leave in January due to a "hormone imbalance," but he will most likely work part-time for the first few months, with COO Tim Cook, who has served as interim CEO in Jobs's absence, taking on a "more encompassing role."

In other news:

More than 1 million units of the new iPhone 3G S were sold over its debut weekend, Apple announced today. Last year, the iPhone 3G sold a similar amount on its first weekend, and many had doubted the iPhone 3G S launch would match it. Apple also said 6 million users have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software since it was released five days ago. Of course, it didn't all go off without a hitch: Gizmodo is reporting that Apple is offering customers $30 iTunes gift certificates to make up for activation delays "that were in some cases 48 hours long."

Wikipedia is planning to introduce video clips by the end of the summer, paidContent.org reports. So far, it has lined up three partners in the effort: "the Internet Archive, which houses roughly 200,000 videos, including documentaries, items such as 1950s educational clips; the Wikimedia Commons, which holds 4 million media files, many of them video; and Metavid, which archives Congressional speeches and hearings." The move comes after Wikipedia ditched Wikia Search, for economic reasons.

Tags: Apple, Business, iPhone, Technology, Video

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