Various names surfaced -- George M. C. Fisher of Kodak, Sam Palmisano at IBM, Ed Zander at Sun Microsystems 有很多人选浮出水面--柯达的乔治·M·C·费希尔的萨姆·帕尔米萨诺、Sun公司的埃德·赞德，

but most of the candidates were understandably reluctant to consider becoming CEO if Jobs was going to remain an active board member. 但是可以理解，如果乔布斯一直是个活跃的董事会成员，大多数人选都会对这份差事犹豫不决。

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Zander declined to be considered 据《旧金山纪事报》报道，赞德拒绝做候选人，

because he "didn't want Steve looking over his shoulder, second-guessing him on every decision." 因为他“不想让史蒂夫总是窥探他、质疑他的每一个决定”。

At one point Jobs and Ellison pulled a prank on a clueless computer consultant who was campaigning for the job; 有一次，乔布斯和埃利森捉弄了一个应聘该职位的愚蠢的计算机顾问；

they sent him an email saying that he had been selected, 他们给他发了一封邮件说他被选中了，

which caused both amusement and embarrassment when stories appeared in the papers that they were just toying with him. 后来这事登在报纸上，而他们只是在戏弄他，搞得既好笑又尴尬。

By December it had become clear that Jobs's iCEO status had evolved from interim to indefinite. 到12月，很明显乔布斯的iCEO地位已经从过渡性的转变为无限期的。

As Jobs continued to run the company, the board quietly deactivated its search. 随着乔布斯继续管理公司，董事会悄悄搁置了CEO的遴选。

"I went back to Apple and tried to hire a CEO, with the help of a recruiting agency, for almost four months," he recalled.  “我回到苹果，在招聘机构的帮助下，花了将近4个月的时间，想要聘请一位CEO。”他回忆说，

"But they didn't produce the right people. “但是他们没找到合适的人。

That's why I finally stayed. Apple was in no shape to attract anybody good." 所以我最终留了下来。苹果当时的糟糕状况无法吸引任何人才加盟。”