"Every former CEO who becomes chairman says he will intervene only when it's something important, but then decides all kinds of things are important," Cappelli said.

If Jobs regularly overrules Cook, that puts the new CEO in a tough position, Cappelli continued. "Replacing someone like Jobs is a regression to the mean," he said. "There's no way to go but down."

Most, however, see Jobs' decision to remain with Apple, if only as its chairman, as a win for the company.

Today, for example, investors took Jobs' retirement in stride, with the news pushing Apple's stock down less than 1% by late afternoon during a day when the market overall was off 1.3%.

That was a minor blip compared to the Apple's stock experienced in October 2008 after a false report that Jobs had a suffered a heart attack made the rounds on the Internet.