When Steve Jobs announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Apple in August, many surmised that only the imminent spectre of death could cause him to walk away from the company. But even after his resignation, and with an untimely end drawing near, Jobs kept working on Apple's yet-unknown Next Big Thing, according to one of the company's partners.
Masayoshi Son, CEO of the Japanese wireless carrier Softbank, says he was in a meeting with Apple's new CEO Tim Cook on the day of the iPhone 4S launch. The meeting got cut short when Cook said he had to take a call from Jobs, who wanted to talk about Apple's next product. The next day, Jobs succumbed to his battle with pancreatic cancer.
"I visited Apple for the announcement of the iPhone 4S [at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California]," Masayoshi said. "When I was having a meeting with Tim Cook, he said, 'Oh Masa, sorry I have to quit our meeting.' I said, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'My boss is calling me.' That was the day of the announcement of the iPhone 4S. He said that Steve is calling me because he wants to talk about their next product. And the next day, he died."
There have been reports that the last Apple product Steve Jobs was most intimately involved with was the next iPhone. The company is also expected to introduce at least one new iPad early next year.
[PC Mag]
