Steve Jobs, the ailing tech visionary who founded Apple Inc., said he was unable to continue as chief executive of the technology giant and handed the reins to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Steve Jobs buzz

Steve Job mentions spiked more than 900% overnight following his resignation announcement.

Apple buzz

Apple buzz is at its highest point since the iPad 2 event in March.

How do you think the departure of Steve Job will affect the Apple brand?

News broke today that Apple will start its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with several important software releases: iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud service, as well as the next iteration of its desktop and mobile platform, Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5.

The really big announcement at this year’s June 6 WWDC will be iCloud, which is rumored to be Apple’s cloud service for music. Recent reports said that Apple has signed a licensing deal with EMI and was close to signing similar deals with Sony and Universal, which would pave the way for iCloud.

WWDC buzz

Chatter around Apple’s WWDC is already up 426%, still a week away from the conference.

WWDC sentiment

Conversations around WWDC are currently 83% positive. Steve Jobs is currently being mentioned in 11% of WWDC posts after speculation that he would participate in the keynote.

We will report back next week following the conference to break down the buzz.

Apple made its second-generation iPad official on Wednesday. iPad 2 features a 1GHz dual-core A5 chip, cameras on both front and rear, a new cover, is 33% thinner than the original iPad. The new device will be available in both black in white on March 11.

We used Social Radar to run analysis around Apple and iPad 2 conversations.

iPad 2 sentiment

Conversations around iPad 2 over the last two days have been 90% positive.

iPad 2 conversation topic cloud

All major topics of conversation around iPad 2 have been positive (green) over the last two days.

iPad 2 vs. Xoom chatter

iPad 2 was mentioned in nearly 0.5% of ALL conversations online yesterday. iPad 2 is currently generating significantly more chatter than competitor Motorola Xoom tablet.

Most discussed features within iPad 2 conversations

We analyzed features mentioned within conversations around iPad 2 over the last two days. The chart displays a percentage each feature was mentioned within iPad 2 posts.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced yesterday he was taking a medical leave of absence without specifying a return date or detailing his condition. Jobs has been ubiquitous with the Apple brand he has built, currently the world’s largest technology company by market capitalization.

We used Social Radar to run analysis on conversations around Apple. Following the announcement, Jobs was mentioned in 30% of Apple-related conversations on the Web.

Apple stock opened the day down after the Jobs’ announcent, but recovered strong after reporting strong results for holiday season, which far exceeded analysts’ expectations. Apple has assured customers that Jobs’ leave will have no impact on the company’s growth.

How do you think Jobs’ absence will affect Apple?

Last week, Apple confirmed many speculations of the release of a computing tablet after announcing the launch of the Apple iPad. In wake of the news, social media felt a massive influx of iPad related posts, tweets, mashups as Apple endured praise and criticism from all over the world. Here’s a look at the social media buzz surrounding the iPad:

Activity surged on the day Steve Jobs unveiled his precious new product and nearly 400,000 bits of content were generated on the interweb on this day alone!

Apple must be doing something right upsizing the iTouch because people seem to be really into this new product. Without even getting a chance to sample the actual device, 75% of social media references have been positive.

Here we see a word analysis that shows the to terms associated with each sentiment. “Lack” was the most popular negative term and it seems that the deficiency of the usual computing features and abilities (can someone say Flash?) really tickled some nerves.

This is what it looks like to put all iPab conversations into a word cloud. Here you see that Steve Jobs was a big part of the chatter as were alleged product features. So here it is, straight from the horses mouths. People dig the iPad. Are you going to get one?

On the heels of Apple’s Sept. 9 Rock and Roll event, we decided to analyze conversation share around some of the big announcements.

The Nano made big news at the event with the announcement of its new built in camera, 2.2-inch display, Genius mix capability and built-in FM radio.

The iPod Classic increased capacity to 160GB while keeping the price the same at $249.

The iPod Touch was advertised as the most affordable gateway to the App Store at $229, with no monthly fees. The keynote called the Touch Apple’s fastest growing product line and highlighted its gaming and pocket computing capability.

Apple also highlighted iTunes 9, which includes Genius mixes, home sharing, iTunes LP and a redesigned store layout.

We used Social Radar to measure share of voice for the following words within coversations about “iPod” within the last month: Touch, Nano, Classic, Shuffle, iPhone, Zune and iTunes.

Conversation around Nano spiked dramatically following the announcements, but Touch still holds the highest share among iPod conversations online.

iPhone and Touch hold the largest percentage of posts within the last 30 days at approximately 30% each, with Nano and iTunes each under 10%.