• Silicon Alley Insider, Monday, January 5, 2009 11:30 AM

In an open letter, Apple CEO Steve Jobs reveals that poor health was indeed the reason he decided not to keynote this year's MacWorld Conference and Expo. In other words, Apple lied when it said the reason for Jobs' mysterious non-appearance was that it was simply phasing out conferences. That may be the reason Apple has decided to forego appearing in future MacWorld conferences, but it's certainly not why Jobs won't be giving the keynote this year.

Fortunately, it's not as bad as everyone thought. In the letter, Jobs says that his dramatic and publicly noted weight loss is due to a hormonal imbalance and that "a few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority. " So, health was precisely the reason for the decision not to have Jobs keynote MacWorld.

Even though the situation isn't "dire", says Henry Blodget, "this doesn't excuse Apple's failure to be forthright about this critical issue." Apple strongly implied that health was not the reason for the decision; at the very least, this is "misleading", says Blodget, who hopes that coming clean about the issue signals that Apple's board "has finally woken up to the seriousness of this issue and are abandoning the ludicrous pretense that it is a "private matter.'" Indeed, as Apple investors showed us three weeks ago, Jobs' health has a very real affect on the company's stock price.

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