The resignation of Steve Jobs as Apple CEO has reverberated around the interwebs today, and it’s no different here in China. While some of the comments might be overkill (if you didn’t know it, you’d think Jobs had already passed away), there’s no doubt that the man behind the iconic iMac, iPhone and iPad is beloved in the cozy confines behind the Great Firewall. After news broke that Steve Jobs resigned, it vaulted to first place among trending topics on Sina Weibo. As of five hours after the announcement, there were 1.4 million updates regarding Steve Jobs posted to Weibo.
Like comments on Twitter and other western websites, most comments showed concern for his health. One person involved in China’s IT industry, Hu Yanping, wrote:
@胡延平： 此时此刻，我不关心Apple，不关心库克，不关心股价，不关心iPhone，不关心iPad，不关心Mac，不关心iOS，更不关心 Microsoft,Google,Nokia,HTC们如何因祸得福因福得祸，我只关心一个人的健康，衷心希望他能战胜胰腺癌，多桀的生命能多些时日， 不被打扰，不被调侃，与家人相伴，与Apple无关。
“At this very moment, I don’t care about Apple, I don’t care about Cook, I don’t care about the iPhone, I don’t care about the iPad, I don’t care about the iMac, I don’t care about iOS, I don’t care about how Microsoft, Google, Nokia, HTC, and others will benefit from this news story, I only care about the health of a person! I hope he can win the battle and have more time to spend with his family without any interruption. This is not about Apple.”
Many people on Weibo are also tweeting (can this word be used in conjunction with Weibo?) some quotes attributed to Jobs that they find inspirational. And others… well, they are concerned about what happens to Apple’s product line without its visionary leader:
明小皓：乔布斯都辞职了，苹果还会出让人眼前一亮的产品吗？
Ming Xiaohao: Will Apple continue to provide astonishingly good products?
跟时间跳华尔兹van：乔布斯都辞职啦,想买iphone的赶紧呐,指不定还会不会有这么经典啦！[神马]
Steve Jobs quit! People who don’t have an iPhone now must go buy one! Because it might be the last signature product from Apple.
_叶钰瑛：乔布斯你不能辞职 苹果会没有以后的
Jobs, please stay, Apple won’t have future without you!
Sina also created 4 polls to ask netizens their opinion on Apple’s future. The first asked if users would continue to purchase Apple products after Jobs’ resignation. 2,788 people voted:
- 32% said they will continue buying Apple products
- 32% said they may buy for another 2 or 3 years due because of habit, but are unsure beyond that
- 31% think Apple without Jobs won’t be the same
- 5% say they won’t purchase Apple products anymore, noting “we buy Apple because of Jobs”
A second poll, in which 3,179 people voted, answered the question: What’s the impact of Jobs’ resignation on Apple?
- 52% said a huge negative impact, Apple won’t be the same without Jobs
- 36% said not too big a negative impact, cause Jobs is still the chairman
- 4% said no impact, because Jobs has not been in control since he became ill anyway
- 2% said no impact, Apple will be fine without Jobs.
- 7% said it is too hard to tell
Thanks to social media expert and bilingual contributor MissXQ (Twitter, Weibo, blog) for the translations.
