An absent Jobs turns 54 as Apple faces recession

Happy birthday, Steve Jobs.

The Apple co-founder and CEO turns 54 today. Jobs, whose poor health has worried shareholders and fans of its hip products alike, will skip the company's annual shareholders' meeting tomorrow, Bloomberg News reported. Since Jobs hasn't missed the event since he rejoined the company in 1997, and because he gets the lion's share of the credit for many of the company's innovations, his absence will carry plenty of symbolic significance. Can Apple succeed without its visionary CEO at the helm?