Edible Apple

Even during his last days, Jobs played an active role at Apple. It’s been reported that Jobs, in the days leading up to the recent iPhone 4S event, was giving tips to Apple’s top brass about the presentation. And now comes word via Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son that Jobs worked on Apple up until the day he died, or at the very least, up until the day before.

During an interview with the US Ambassador to Japan, Son recounted a revealing anecdote about Jobs.

I visited Apple for the announcement of the iPhone 4S [at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California]. When I was having a meeting with Tim Cook, he said, ‘Oh Masa, sorry I have to quit our meeting.’ I said, ‘Where are you going?’ He said, ‘My boss is calling me.’ That was the day of the announcement of the iPhone 4S. He said that Steve is calling me because he wants to talk about their next product. And the next day, he died.

Even one day before he passed away, the first subject he wanted to call Tim Cook about…he wanted to talk about the next product… That’s the kind of spirit a true entrepreneur would continue to have until they die. He was very sick, very ill. But the announcement of their newest product made him live longer. Physically he could have died much earlier. But his passion, his love for his own company and dream, about the next products, that made him energized.

Son of course didn’t delve deeper into what product Jobs had contacted Cook to discuss, but analyst Ashok Kumar of Rodman & Renshaw recently issued a note to investors claiming that the iPhone 5 was the last project Jobs “was intimately involved with from concept to final design.”

Indeed, other sources have relayed that Jobs involvement with the iPhone 4S was relatively minimal as he wanted to focus his last effort on Apple’s next major iPhone upgrade which, rumor has it, will be 4G compatible and will sport a larger screen.

Described as a large project with a complete re-design, the iPhone 5 device will reportedly maintain the iPhone 4S form factor, albeit with a larger edge to edge screen. It’s also believed that Apple’s next-gen iPhone will support 4G.

via PC Mag