Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple

The news just hit the tape: Steve Jobs wrote a letter to Apple's Bard of Directors to resign from the CEO position of Apple. He will remain as Chairman and director of the board and an Apple employee.

The prognosis is not good for anyone who has pancreatic cancer, liver transplant and then cancer recurrence. I hate to say this, he is getting close to the end of his life. I hope I am wrong. I pray that he survive this. But reality is reality.

Apple will never be the same without Steve, employee No. 1. He is the soul of the company. He is the essence of the brand.

Steve is a great visionary. Back in the late 90s, he saw the end of PC era coming. He admitted that WinTel (Windows and Intel) has won the PC battle. Let's move on to the next battle front. He re-positioned the company for the post PC world. He refocused Apple's product strategy on the "digital life style" of the post PC era.

Steve is a great communicator. He is the ultimate salesman for Apple products. When Steve gives a presentation, you can't help but be mesmerized by his salesmanship and then go on by the products he pitched.

Steve has a great sense of what is cool. He is extremely detail oriented. I have heard that he personally pick the songs to be played on every single Apple's TV Ads. Apple is the first technology company that thinks aesthetics is equally important for tech products as the technology itself. That's why Apple's products are intuitive, meticulously and beautifully designed, and simply works.

Steve is also a very demanding executive. In the early days of Apple, he personally interviewed every job applicants. If you are not performing, your life at Apple would not be fun. You better find a job in another company. But if you perform, you will be richly rewarded, no matter how young you may be. It is really meritocracy in Apple.

I hope the culture that Steve instilled in Apple will last. If it does, I think Apple can continue its success.

I am a lucky early investor in Apple. I bought the stock in single digit price range and have hold the stock for many years. The stock may be under pressure tomorrow. But I am not selling. I think Apple's success momentum is really strong. Opportunity for Apple in China is enormous. Over time, I think the China market can rival that of the US. But that's over a long time.

Good luck Steve.