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Retail Sales for October 2011 - 0.5%

October 2011 Retail Sales increased 0.5%. September retail sales were 1.1%. Retail sales are up 7.2% from the same time last year. Electronics and Appliance stores shot up 3.7% in a month, the highest monthly jump since November 2009. The pop up in electronics & appliances retail sales accounts for all of the gains in this category from last year, 3.5%.

 

Steve Jobs Has Died

Steve Jobs has died. He was 56 years old. Pancreatic Cancer finally got him. This should come as no surprise since Mr. Jobs gave up his Apple CEO position earlier on August 24th.

This is a sad day for techies. Steve Jobs was the good one in terms of innovation and vision. To this day black hardware otherwise known as a NeXT computer is admired as one of the most brilliant and innovation systems to date. The operating system from the NeXT spawned eventually OS X, which propelled Apple back from the brink of extinction.

Apple has put on their entire front page a memorial to Steve Jobs with an email to share thoughts and condolences. Rightly so, his spirit is entwined throughout the company.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

May his innovative spirit live on. MacWorld has created a biography of Jobs and noted he reigned as Apple CEO for 14 years.

Steve Jobs Resigns

Steve Jobs has resigned from Apple as CEO, effective immediately. Tim Cook, is now CEO. Cook has been the #2 man, as COO, and has been effectively running Apple since Jobs latest medical leave.

Jobs has pancreatic cancer since 2004 with a liver transplant in 2009. Jobs is now chairman of the board. Jobs resignation marks an end of an era in a way. Apple was the great innovator that Microsoft copied, later to be handed over to a past Coca-cola CEO who mired Apple into bureaucratic boredom, engineers fast asleep, as Gates and his vision of the world dominated the planet. Jobs lost control of Apple in 1984, only to return in 1997.

Jobs Letter:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve