Steve Jobs wore his usual jeans and black turtleneck today to unveil Apple’s iPad tablet computer. But he also wore the look of a man still suffering at least some effects of a liver transplant.
Jobs looked thin and at least twice sat down on a black sofa during the presentation in San Francisco, according to reports.
Apple investors always fret over Jobs’ health because it was only after he returned to the company in 1996 that its fortunes rebounded. He was the driving force behind the iPhone, for instance.
The CEO in September acknowledged for the first time publicly that his health had deteriorated to the point where his life was in danger, and credited a liver transplant he received earlier this year with saving him.
“As some of you know, five months ago I had a liver transplant,” he said then. “I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs. I wouldn’t be here without such generosity, so I hope all of us can be as generous and elect to be organ donors.”
A year ago, Jobs’ health was so bad that he was forced to go on medical leave — seven months after the “bug” explanation — that Apple admitted that Jobs had a “hormone imbalance,” and that it was “relatively simple and straightforward” to treat.
Then in June came the bombshell that Jobs underwent a liver transplant.