Jobs' Health Creates PR Nightmare for Apple

Apple announced Tuesday that Steve Jobs will not give his customary keynote address at Macworld in San Francisco next month and will be replaced by an Apple executive.

What was left unsaid was: why?



As Apple-watchers know, Jobs has had cancer and in his most recent appearance for Apple, looked thin and sort of gaunt. I don't know when was the last time he was seen in public in his regular life.

The question about the health of Steve Jobs isn't simply morbid celebrity watching. Jobs has been the dominant personality of his company and when prior reports about his health surfaced, scared investors knocked billion's off Apple's stock market valuation.

Let's say you're Apple PR. What do you do? Do you tell the world what's going on? Do you stick your head in the sand and make believe it's not happening? FWIW, Apple officially declined comment regarding Jobs' Macworld non-appearance. But that won't quell the speculation.