This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Changes are taking place in Silicon Valley in California. Larry Page will replace Eric Schmidt as chief executive at Google.And Apple's chief, Steve Jobs, is taking another medical leave.Two years ago Mr. Jobs received a new liver. In two thousand four he had pancreatic cancer.This month's announcement did not say how long he might be away or give a reason.Apple reported record-high earnings for the final three months of last year.But the health of Steve Jobs always brings questions about the future of the company.He helped start Apple Computer in nineteen seventy-six.Today the company that played a big part in the personal computing revolution just calls itself Apple.Its products include the iPod and iPhone, and it expects to sell six million iPad tablet computers this year.Steve Jobs has long been Apple's public face. But some might forget that he left in nineteen eighty-five to form a computer company called NeXT.Manuel Perez-Quinones is a computer science professor at Virginia Tech.
