great article by John Gruber over at Daring Fireball:

“Put another way, the obvious structure for a post-Jobs Apple is simply Apple as we know it, without Steve Jobs.”

i think he’s totally en pointe with regard to Apple’s CEO situation. if you’re at all interested in the future of technology, i highly recommend reading this article.

also in the news this week (here’s another DF link, sourced from The BBC) is the insane amount of cash Apple has on hand:

“Apple’s most recent financial results put its reserves at $76.4bn”

many have speculated what Apple might use this cash for, but most suggestions involve laughably small portions of this immense amount of corporate wealth. stock holders have wondered why they aren’t seeing any of it.

my theory combines these two articles.

i don’t know much about stocks and such, so this may not be possible, legal, or accurate.

but imagine this.

Steve announces his retirement. the stock takes a hit. suddenly, Apple stops sitting on their cash and starts paying dividends to all their shareholders.

this could easily halt a drop in stock, perhaps even making it go back up. it’d be a great life-preserver to get Apple over what would on paper (read: to Wall Street) be a transitional hump, though in reality for Apple it would allow them to keep on with business as usual, at least as it has been for the most part during the last few years.

my hunches are almost ALWAYS wrong. but there it is anyway.