Jobs made the announcement in a letter to employees that was also released on Business Wire. It reads, in its entirety:

Team,
At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.

Steve

The announcement, which comes the day before Apple is expected to announce Q4 results, is sure to raise new questions about Jobs long-term health, about which the mercurial Apple founder has traditionally been laconic. Jobs had a liver transplant in June 2009 and many have have speculated that his dramatic weight loss in recent years was due to a recurrence of the disease.

Jobs took a medical leave for the first half of 2009. On January 5 2009 he said, also in an open letter, that the cause of his weight loss was not a recurrence of his pancreatic cancer but a treatable hormone imbalance. In that letter, Jobs said he had already begun a “relatively simple and straightforward” treatment for the condition, that he would remain on as Apple CEO during his recovery, and that he expected to be noticeably improved in a matter of months.

Nine day later he disclosed the matter was much more serious. He wrote to his employees then that:

“… during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought. In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.”

Since his return Jobs has not just been a CEO in name only. He has make numerous public appearances, notably for the announcement of the iPad, and on a more sour note, to address criticism of the iPhone 4’s battery in an episode that came to be knows as “antenna-gate.”

Follow us for disruptive tech news: John C. Abell and Epicenter on Twitter.

See Also:

• Jobs’ Health Message Makes Little Sense, Expert Says
• Steve Jobs: Health Problems ‘More Complex Than I Originally …
• Apple’s Earnings Are Healthy — But What About Jobs?
• Steve Jobs is Not — Repeat, Not — Dead
• Jobs Had Liver Transplant – WSJ.com
• Steve Jobs Cites Treatable Hormone Imbalance For Weight Loss …
• Apple CEO Steve Jobs Goes on Medical Leave

Authors: John C Abell

to know more click here