Amid all the tributes, hosannas and whatnot about Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO of Apple, this simple fact seems to have gotten lost: the only time Apple has developed and released hit products has been when Steve Jobs has been CEO.

Another thing: for now, Steve Jobs isn’t going anywhere. He’s still alive, as far as we know he is still involved in the company to the best of his abilities and energies, and I would guess that the last thing he will give up is offering his opinions and leadership regarding new product development.

But the sad fact is that Steve is likely very ill and may not be with us much longer. And then Apple will have to attempt to do something it has never successfully done: create and market hit technology products without Steve Jobs’ guidance.

From the Apple II in the 1970s to the iPad in 2010, everything great that has come out of Apple has been shepherded to the market by Steve Jobs. Apple’s track record after Steve was pushed out of the company by John Sculley in 1985 until his return as CEO in 1997? Zero hit products, death spiral, near bankruptcy.

Another fact to consider: Sculley was the hottest exec in the country when he took over Apple and has at least as much mojo as Tim Cook. Yet he couldn’t deliver. In Cook’s favor, of course, is that he has been deeply involved in Apple for years, unlike Sculley, who had no tech industry experience.

Meanwhile, during his exile Jobs founded Next Computer, which merely created the operating system that now powers the Mac, and built Pixar into the moviemaking powerhouse it is today.

Conclusion: Steve Jobs is a unique technology industry talent, and Apple has no track record producing hits without him. So we’ll see how they do as the future unfolds.

More than three months after Dan Primack took his act over to CNN/Fortune.com, peHUB finally has a new editor: Jonathan Marino, formerly of SourceMedia’s M&A Journal.

Marino introduced himself today to the 50,000+ subscribers of the peHUB Wire morning email with the following:

Hi everyone, I’m Jonathan Marino, the new editor for peHUB.com. To some of you, I am a familiar face–I spent the last three years covering deals, private equity and banking for SourceMedia’s M&A Journal. Additionally, I have written about a range of topics for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Post and The Washington Examiner, including investigative reports and homeland security coverage. I’ll have all my contact info posted soon, but for now, reach me at jmarino99@gmail.com.

In the next several months, you’ll be seeing a number of changes and enhancements to peHub.com and the daily Wire as we look to provide greater networking capabilities, more exclusive stories and more columns from experts and executives. I will also be reaching out to many of you to get ideas about how we can improve our service.

Side note: despite CNN/Fortune’s assertion that Primack would broaden his coverage well beyond private equity to the public markets, there is very little sign of that so far in his coverage, which reads just like it did under ThomsonReuters.

Meanwhile, peHUB has suffered in Primack’s absence, with its writers employing his quirky language (eg., “shameless plug,” “Monday Mouth-off”) but without his signature wit. Hopefully, Jon Marino will bring some new life back to what has been a great media outlet for private equity and VC news.

Charlene Li, one of my favorite social media pundits, gave a speech at the PRSA International Conference this week and then gave a “press conference” to those of us (including me) who were designated “press” for the conference.

Li said that like most analysts, she is in the midst of developing her “outlook” report for 2011, and she gave us a preview in the press conference.

The two big trends Li is watching as the year winds down are:

1. the rise of “social data” and “social search” and
2. our evolving feelings regarding privacy and permissions in social media

On social data, Li is watching to see how all the volumes of data we are generating in social media are used. Marketers and others are quickly realizing that social media users are providing reams of valuabe information about brands, trends, likes and dislikes, but are just now starting to figure out how to gather and analyze it.

On privacy and permissions, Li sees us moving away from protecting our privacy and toward managing the permissions we give web sites and our contacts. She likened the transition to what happened when Caller ID was first introduced. Peoples’ first reaction was that it was an invasion of privacy, but after awhile, as they realized that it had value, it became more about giving people useful information that reduced life’s friction.