Apple CEO Jobs Returns to Work, Reports Say

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has returned to work, a company spokesperson says, after a six-month medical leave that involved a liver transplant. In his absence, Apple launched its iPhone 3G S smartphone, which sold 1 million units in its first three days of release, suggesting that the company could operate successfully even without its iconic leader at the helm.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is back at work after a six-month medical leave that included a liver transplant, according to the company.

"Steve is back to work," an Apple spokesperson told Reuters on June 29. "He's currently at Apple a few days a week, and working from home the remaining days. We are very glad to have him back."

Steve Jobs underwent a liver transplant at the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute, in Memphis, Tenn., around two months ago, according to a June 20 article in The Wall Street Journal. Jobs was the "sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available," according to a statement by the hospital.

"Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis," continued the hospital statement, which Jobs reportedly approved, and which contained no further details about his underlying medical condition. Jobs was also treated for a type of pancreatic cancer in 2004.

Despite his leave of absence, Apple continued to do well, with a highly successful June 19 rollout of the iPhone 3G S, of which 1 million were sold by its third day of release.

"Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning," Jobs wrote in a statement accompanying the device's release. "With over 50,000 applications available from Apple's revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever."

However, Apple's original, terse statements concerning the circumstances of Jobs' leave-that his condition was due to a "hormone imbalance," and then that his medical issues were "more complex" than initially anticipated-still have the potential to generate trouble for the company. The Securities and Exchange Commission could potentially feel that due to Jobs' position as Apple's chief executive, the company should have revealed more about his condition, as his death or incapacitation would have had a potentially seismic effect on the company's stock and thus its fortunes.