BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) — You all know that Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive of Apple Inc. The San Francisco Bay Area news organizations, without exception, have made it sound as if Jobs is on his deathbed and that things are going to change at Apple overnight.

If Jobs divorced himself from the company and gave up his chairmanship, then I’d be more concerned. But he did not. He is still chairman. He still has oversight capability and can maintain that for some time to come. Read MarketWatch’s full coverage on Jobs and his resignation.

Tim Cook takes Apple CEO role

The general scenario in the media is an exaggeration, and the decision for Jobs to step down may have a simpler, more logical explanation than just his being critically ill.

The reason is Tim Cook.

Everyone in Silicon Valley would love to hire this guy, and from his perspective, his title as “acting” chief executive gets old fast when you are actually running the company.

Jobs has been on extended leave for months, so what’s going to change with this announcement? Nothing, that’s what — except the title itself. And this is what is important.

Giving up the CEO title to Cook had to be done sooner than later. The company cannot take a chance that Cook might get tired of being jerked around. More importantly, from Cook’s perspective, he cannot afford to be the acting chief executive if Jobs actually dies while he is acting chief.

The way these companies operate, they will keep a CEO if he or she is the actual CEO and the chairman/founder dies. If he or she is the acting CEO when the chairman/founder/CEO dies, then the job is up for grabs. Cook would not automatically become the CEO.

In other words, Cook may get screwed out of the top spot when the weasels come out of the woodwork. “Yes, he’s the acting CEO, but let’s just look around before we give him the job — just in case.”

Will Apple's competitors benefit?

In other words, the board begins to headhunt on the chance that there is someone more to its liking out there and available to run the company. Just look at the executive merry-go-round at Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ, +0.37% to see how crazy it can get.

If Cook is already named the chief executive and operates with that title, then he stays. It’s that simple.

So what happens now? In a word, nothing.

Even if something happens to Jobs, nothing will happen to Apple. AAPL, +1.50% The company is like a battleship; it will take forever to change its course.

Will the course change eventually? Perhaps, but the possibility exists that it will get even better. You can’t know for sure. But panic selling at this point is silly whatever you think will or might happen.

Within the various Apple niches, the competition is scant and unorganized. I personally cannot even see a reasonable competitor for the iPad anywhere on the horizon. The Mac laptops have become the prestigious executive laptop of choice.

I would think that things will continue exactly the same, with or without Jobs at the helm, for the foreseeable future. The only reason the stock should decline would only be because of a general market decline, not management screw-ups.

But make sure to check back in two years for an update.