Jobs passed the reins to his right-hand man Tim Cook on Thursday, saying he could no longer fulfill his duties, raising fears the health from the Silicon Valley icon had worsened.
While Apple and analysts highlighted Cook's encounter, as well as Jobs' new role as chairman and the company's considerable management bench, his departure will cause ripples across the Pacific at Southern Korea's Samsung.
More than any other firm, Samsung's fortunes are tied in order to Apple, both as a competitor and supplier of components.
The companies tend to be fierce rivals, with Samsung's Galaxy range of smartphones and tablet computers running on Google's Android operating-system seen as the main competitor to Apple's game-changing iPhones and iPads.
"Even prior to Steve Jobs' (resignation), Samsung was getting more and more optimistic that they are able to actually take on Apple in the smartphone arena, " said Mark Newman, the former director of strategy at Samsung, where he worked for six many years.
"The game is really now Samsung's to lose... They are picking up market share due to the change in dynamics in the smartphone industry, " added Newman, now a senior analyst for global memory and gadgets at Sanford C Bernstein.
BOOMING MARKET
The Korean giant has taken big strides and it is backing itself to unseat Apple.
When Samsung group executives asked Hong Won-pyo, professional vice president of Samsung's mobile division, at their weekly meeting on Wednesday if Samsung could overtake Apple within the smartphone market any time soon, he told them he was confident, based on a person at the meeting. Hong was speaking just hours before Jobs made his announcement to stop as CEO.
Apple and Samsung are scrapping for top spot in the actual smartphone market, having overtaken the market leader for the past decade, Finland's Nokia, within the second quarter.
Samsung's smartphone sales soared more than 500 percent in the 2nd quarter, easily eclipsing Apple's 142 percent growth, though Apple sold about 1 zillion more units. Nokia sales fell 30 percent.
News of Jobs' move assisted Samsung shares rise 2. 5 percent in Seoul on Thursday. The wider Korean market was up 0. 6 percent.
"Investors were concerned that Apple company would encroach into Android's turf, but Jobs' exit offers opportunities for Samsung to expand its smartphone market share at any given time when Nokia is struggling, " said Jeon Nam-joong, a fund manager from Consus Asset Management, which owns shares in Samsung.
Samsung still trails terribly in tablet sales, where Apple racked up 14 million iPad sales within the first half, versus analysts' sales estimates of about 7. 5 million Samsung tablet products for those of 2011.
Some expect that dominance to fade against rivals such because Samsung and LG Electronics
"Apple's earnings will peak out with smartphones as well as tablets, " said Jung Kyun-sik, a fund manager at Eugene Asset Administration in Seoul, who argued the company didn't have great products to undertake the baton from the iPhone and iPad.
"Samsung and LG have experienced the mobile hardware manufacturing industry over a decade and they'll lead the actual pack once Apple peaks out. ".