乔布斯的辞职使各界大为震惊，人们认为这标志着一个时代的结束。现在，苹果公司未来的发展方向成为了人们关注的焦点。

After Steve Jobs' resignation as CEO of Apple, the company he co-founded decades ago, analysts and customers in Europe believe the move signals a change, but is not likely to have a huge impact on the innovation of the company.

With a showman's flair, Steve Jobs always seemed to delight in maximizing the drama of his time in the spotlight.

'And one more thing' was the phrase the Apple faithful had come to expect from the company's co-founder and visionary boss. It was the signal that a rabbit would be pulled from a hat, or at least the technological equivalent.

On a personal level, he'd fought and survived a rare form of pancreatic cancer which had already forced him to step back from running day to day operations more than once.

By announcing his resignation as CEO and backing Tim Cook as his replacement Jobs signaled it was time to move forward.

Outside the Apple store in London's Covent Garden, consumers contemplate what the shift means for the brand he built into a global powerhouse.

Shopper Ilya Ryndin said, "The company will miss him, because I know he was the face of Apple."

Simon Leavesley said, "It is quite a shock, but I can't blame him with the health issues that he has."

Holly Wilson said, "Shocked, but not devastated. I'd still be comfortable with buying anything from Apple, it's an established brand, I trust the quality of their products."

Mark Mulligan is an independent digital strategist who's observed Jobs in action on several occasions.

Independent Digital Media Strategist Mark Mulligan said, "He's clearly charismatic. He's clearly somebody who I would say is a force of personality, and somebody who manages to inspire leadership in people. There is no way that he would've been at the top of his game through so many challenges, personal as well as business. He's managed to hammer through things nobody else has achieved in negotiations."

Carolina Milanesi is the chief Apple analyst at Gartner Research and says the question everyone's asking is:

He said, "It's almost as if some people think of this as the end of Apple which is absolutely the wrong way to look at the company with iPhone 5, with the new version of the iPad, with iCloud. To some extent Apple is starting on a new journey if you like and maybe this is the right time for Steve Jobs to hand over the reins to Tim Cook to drive that next phase of the company. At the moment where the company is safe and doing very well."

There is little about this news that comes as a genuine surprise, other than perhaps its precise timing.

Still that doesn't diminish the impact of hearing that the man who engineered the most remarkable corporate turnaround of our times is planning to take a lesser role in the company he helped to found.

重点词汇讲解：

1. resignation n. 辞职, 辞呈, 顺从
常用搭配： tender/hand in/offer/give/send in one's resignation 递交辞呈
2. have a huge impact on “对……有重大影响”，类似表达有：have an influence on
3. signal n. 信号；标志 v. 发信号；标志着
4. contemplate vt. 思忖，思量，仔细考虑 vi. 冥思苦想，深思熟虑[(+on/upon)]
5. hand over 移交