Introducing Gapple: Jobs Stepping Down, To Be Replaced By Eric Schmidt From Google

Steve Jobs will soon be leaving Apple, and Google’s CEO, Eric Shmidt, will be taking over. Is this a rumor? Yes, it is, but a very good one.

A close friend of mine is a Mac administrator who gets regularly taken out by her local Apple representative. Every now and then he’ll mention something Apple-related — and everything thus far that he’s told her has come true.

In short, This is not the repetition of previous rumors — it’s solid information from an Apple employee that happens to support what we’re seeing elsewhere.

And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Let’s review:

• Jobs has mentioned repeatedly that he’s going to be leaving soon.
• Eric Schmidt joins Jobs on stage at MacWorld to discuss them working together extensively.
• Eric Schmidt recently joined the Apple board of directors.
• They are both Microsoft arch-enemies.
• Jobs is very paternal when it comes to his baby (Apple). It’s very logical for him to leave it to another CEO who’s dominating the market.

I mean, the signs are just so obvious. Everything is lining up just perfectly. So, here are two ways my buddy Ken and I can see it playing out:

1. Jobs Steps Down, Eric Schmidt Takes Over Big news, but as big as it could be. Jobs steps out of the picture and Schmidt takes over and maintains most, if not all, of Apple’s momentum. Integration between the two companies increases 10-fold, but other than that things are pretty separate.
2. Google Buys Apple Holy crap. Can you imagine? Think about it. The first one is included in the second one! If Google buys them, Eric will be the CEO by default. So Jobs can then do what he’s wanted to do for a long time now, and step aside. Integration? Hell…with Google and Apple being the same company…dude. It’s just insane to even think about it.

And when you add that there’s been solid speculation about a merger going on since before MacWorld anyway…it starts to really get pretty compelling. In. Sane.

My buddy Jason thinks it should be called Gapple. I don’t think it’ll stick. Anyway, regardless of what they name it — it’s going to be completely awesome to watch. I can’t possibly imagine the pain in Microsoft’s collective face when they find out. It’ll be a sad day in Redmond, that’s for sure.