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Apple's Jobs declared CEO for life

Drops 'interim' from job-title -- and about time too

Apple's senior executives, most of the rest of the company's staff and the Mac faithful were all granted their most cherished wish today when Steve Jobs struck the 'interim' from his job title to become Apple's full-time CEO. Two-and-a-half years on from the palace coup that saw off Gil Amelio the previous CEO, Gil Amelio, an emotional Jobs told the Macworld Expo keynote crowd that he'd decided not to move on after turning the Mac maker around as he'd originally planned. Jobs said he'd convinced the boards and shareholders of both Apple and computer movie company Pixar that he can run both businesses simultaneously to the detriment of neither. Of course, Apple has always been Jobs' baby, and despite an early attempt to seek a possible successor, a parting of the ways was always going to be a difficult thing to do for all his protestations that running Pixar was the best role he'd had. In the end, Apple couldn't find someone to take over from Jobs once his work at the company was done, but given that, at the time, the company was looking like it wouldn't be around for much longer, it's not surprising no one else wanted the job. Most likely Jobs himself didn't go the whole hog at the start precisely to avoid dragged down too if his attempt to pull Apple out of the red failed. Ironically, much of Jobs' recovery strategy -- cut costs, slim down the product line, focus on core competencies, aggressively pursue Internet business -- actually took shape under Amelio's direction. It's doubtful that the company would have travelled quite as far toward the consumer end of the spectrum as it has under Jobs, but the current CEO has taken more credit than he actually deserves. That said, running Apple isn't always about strategic stuff -- getting up on stage and telling everyone the company is great is just as important, and here Jobs is the master. The way the company's stock price shoots up after every Jobs keynote is proof of that, and in this respect, Jobs has done as much for Apple as an evangelist as a boss. Wall Street likes Jobs and that may well have been one of the main reasons why he finally dropped the sham of pretending to be a temp. He was, after all, fooling no one. ® Related Stories Apple's Internet strategy takes shape Apple unveils MacOS X, readies 'classic' OS' retirement Analysts bullish about Apple ahead of Expo announcements

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