Rumors of Steve Jobs’s ill health have been greatly exaggerated.
That is what Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, has been telling a number of his associates, even as concerns about his health have weighed on the company’s stock price.
The latest flurry of talk was set off Monday when, in a conference call after the release of Apple’s earnings, a company executive responded to a question about Jobs’s condition by saying that it was “a private matter.”
But in recent weeks, Jobs has reassured several people that he is doing well and that four years after a successful operation to treat a rare form of pancreatic cancer, he is cancer-free.
People who are close to Jobs say he had a surgical procedure this year to address a problem that was contributing to a loss of weight. These people declined to be identified because Jobs had not authorized them to speak about his health.
Jobs’s gaunt appearance last month when he unveiled the iPhone 3G led to speculation that his cancer had returned. An Apple spokesman has said that Jobs picked up a “common bug” in the weeks before the event and was taking a course of antibiotics. An Apple spokeswoman declined further comment Tuesday.
Jobs ran a high fever for the week preceding his presentation, according to an industry executive he spoke with. He considered canceling his appearance but did not want to skip a long-scheduled event, that person said.
In an interview after the presentation, Jobs responded to a reporter’s question about how he was feeling by saying, “I feel fine.” Jobs has told several associates, as well as some members of Apple’s board, that he is dealing with nutritional problems in the wake of his cancer surgery. Medical descriptions of the surgery state that in some cases it leads to weight loss and low energy.
Analysts were…