Steve Jobs resigned, but he’s still Apple’s employee No. 2

Steve Jobs may have just resigned from his role as Apple’s CEO, but he’s not going anywhere.

If you read Jobs’ letter last night (and the accompanying press release), it’s fairly easy to see that. What happened less than twenty-four hours ago was more a formalizing of a long-standing arrangement between Jobs, Tim Cook, and the company both men work for than it was a major shift in roles. Tim will receive the official title of CEO and continue to manage day-to-day operations at Apple, but Jobs will be there, as Chairman of the Board, as Apple employee number two. Still leading, still giving cues, still brainstorming and critiquing.

Joshua Topolsky

An authoritative voice on technology and consumer electronics, Joshua Topolsky is the founding editor-in-chief of The Verge, a technology news and information Web site, and the former editor-in-chief of Engadget.  He is the resident tech expert for NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, Bloomberg TV and G4’s “Attack of the Show.”  A lifelong gadget enthusiast, Joshua used his first computer at age 6 (a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A), and has been breaking apart and reassembling gadgets since phones had rotary dialers.

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That much seems clear to me not only from the tone and wording of Steve’s letter, but from what I’ve heard from numerous industry sources.

This hierarchy is not wildly different than what has already been happening (and what has happened in the past) at Apple. When Jobs took his last leave of absence this past January, Tim Cook stepped into the role of CEO in most ways you can conceive of. And why not? He’s done this on numerous occasions, starting way back in 2004, then again in January of 2009, and finally one last time at the beginning of this year. This is a long, tested, familiar structure, and it has worked amazingly well for Apple. As many have already pointed out, the company’s rise during these past few years has been meteoric, and that’s thanks in no small part to the leadership and steady hand of Tim Cook.

So what Apple looks like today, tomorrow, and maybe even years down the road isn’t going to dramatically change. Steve will still be there, navigating — if not outright piloting — the big ship in Cupertino, still bringing his strange and brilliant mixture of talents to the table, still being the company’s toughest critic and most ardent defender. And Tim will be there as well, keeping that famous cool, making sure deadlines are met and plans are put into action. Apple will be Apple, just as we know it now.

But the question that has been knocking around my brain over the past day, and honestly long before Steve Jobs penned his resignation letter, is this: what does Apple look like once Steve Jobs is really no longer there?

There has been an enormous amount of noise made concerning Jobs’ health and his ability to remain active at Apple in the press. Some of that noise has been addressed by the company and Steve, but most of it remains untouched. I won’t speculate on the details of Jobs’ health issues, but I think it’s reasonable to say that what ails him is clearly quite serious. Questions of health or time are not what interest me here, however, because the inevitability is that there will be a time when Steve Jobs simply isn’t there — and I’m not sure that anyone knows what Apple looks like after that point.

To understand how serious this question is, you have to understand the kind of unbridled genius that is Steve Jobs. You’ll find no shortage of articles today in praise and tribute to what Jobs has done at Apple, and this is one occasion where the well-wishes, the fond remembrances… the genuflection, even, is truly justified.