Early Warning Signs of Steve Jobs' Waning Influence at Apple?

Two ways to know if Steve Jobs' influence has diminished.

He may not be the CEO of Apple

anymore, but Steve Jobs is still thought to be a powerful figure at the company he built more than 30 years ago. Trip Chowdhry, the Managing Director of Equity Research at Global Equities Research, is providing a few early warning signs that could indicate whether or not Jobs' influence is waning. “The following events will clearly indicate Steve Jobs [has] lost of control of Apple,” Chowdhry wrote in an e-mail this morning. “1) If Apple Initiates any Stock Buy Back Program. 2) If Apple starts giving out dividends.” Chowdhry says that if either (or both) events occur, “it will clearly indicate that Apple will not be any different [from] other technology companies like Microsoft

and Cisco

.”