5 Things For Steve Jobs To Do Now That He's Back At Apple

returned from his medical leave

While Tim Cook, COO of Apple, has handled the day-to-day operations of the company for the past five months, there are some items that only Steve Jobs himself will be able to definitively address.

1. iPhone Overheating: Apple's first priority needs to be cooling down the iPhone 3G S, and not because it is selling so quickly. Reports emerged Monday that the latest version of the phone has gotten so hot that one user thought to "put it in the fridge." The iPhone, like the iPod before it, is too closely associated with Apple's overall health for this not to be priority No. 1 for Jobs.

2. Crush The Palm Pre: While the cat is away, the mice will play, as the saying goes. And during Jobs' absence, Palm unveiled its hotly anticipated Palm Pre. And it did it just days before the new iPhone was officially unveiled. The Apple iPhone may not have the biggest share of the smartphone market, but you can be sure that's not for a lack of trying. Like the BlackBerry Storm before it, Jobs needs to continue to push innovation at Apple to keep the iPhone a step ahead of its newest buzz-worthy rival.

3. App Store Leadership: Simply put, no competitor touches Apple and the iPhone when it comes to its ecosystem of independent developers feeding its App Store. Unfortunately, while Jobs was away there were a disturbing number of complaints about the draconian tactics iPhone App developers are being subjected to. Jobs needs to step into the fray and set a clear and decisive course in the App Store to ensure that developers aren't alienated and continue to deliver the best content to Apple (and not its competitors).

4. Netbook Or Tablet: Steve Jobs and Apple have consistently denied that the company is developing a netbook. An Apple tablet, on the other hand, hasn't been ruled out entirely. While it may be pie-in-the-sky for Apple to bring a low-cost, ultra-portable netbook to customers, Jobs still needs to address the cost differential between his company's products and PCs. Microsoft's Laptop Hunters ad campaign may have induced Apple to bring the prices down on its MacBooks at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this month. And while Apple fans will continue to pay a premium for products, introducing a lower price point on something will win Jobs and his company enormous amounts of good will.

5. Ditch AT&T: The exclusive contract that Apple and AT&T signed for the iPhone is over at the end of this year. Jobs needs to end the exclusivity of the relationship. Apple gave AT&T months of advance warning about the new features it planned to roll out in iPhone OS 3.0. Two of the most anticipated of the bunch were MMS and tethering. Like clockwork, Apple rolled those features out at this month's WWDC " only to add the postscript that AT&T was not supporting them at launch. The wireless carrier, for its part, has lamely responded that the features will be available "later this summer." Jobs can make his constituents happy by simply declaring the exclusivity ended.