Jobs under fire at Apple's annual meeting

Share scandal leads but Leopard and iPhone get a mention

11 May 2007 14:34 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Apple's CEO Steve Jobs faced some tough questions at last night's Apple annual meeting. He came under fire in regards to the earlier scandal regarding Apple stock options that led to the American SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) charging two former Apple executives for allegedly underhandedly backdating the price of share options to improve their price.

Shareholders demanded to know how much Jobs knew about this matter, and when he was made aware of it. An internal review previously found Jobs in the clear of any wrongdoing.

Steve Jobs is famous for only drawing a $1 salary (plus the now famous stock options) at one point during the meeting Jobs joked that: "I get 50 cents just for showing up and the other 50 cents is based on my performance".

Other issues discussed were measures to make Apple more environmentally friendly with two groups of shareholders demanding better recycling standards and less toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process, but they backed down in the light of Apple's recent green initiative, announced last week.

Regarding the delayed Leopard operating system (the now overdue Mac OS X v10.5) Jobs was tight-lipped saying that it would be "worth the wait".

The next big thing, the iPhone, did not go without a mention with Jobs revealing that Apple "is wrestling with" the possibility of opening up the iPhone (one of which he just happened to have in his pocket) to third-party applications after all instead of launching at as a "closed device".