Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had the business world in a tizzy for months wondering about his mysterious illness, but 41% of Americans say the innovative technology company he co-founded will do fine without him.

Sixteen percent (16%) say Apple is in trouble if Job doesn’t return from a medical leave of absence at the end of June as he has promised, and 44% are not sure in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Among investors, 19% say Apple is in trouble without Jobs, while 46% say it is not and 36% are undecided.

Apple Inc. is slated to report first-quarter earnings after the market closes today. A California-based technology company, Apple is best known for the Macintosh computer, the iPod and the iPhone.

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Compared to Microsoft guru Bill Gates, 23% say Jobs is the better innovator, but 36% rate Gates higher. Forty-one percent (41%) are undecided.

Investors are more closely divided, with 37% favoring Gates and 31% Jobs. Non-investors give the edge to Gates by 20 points.

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes, which measure daily economic confidence, rose to their highest levels in two weeks today but are still in record low territory.

To put the Gates-Jobs comparison in perspective, 62% say they use Microsoft’s Windows operating system, while just six percent (6%) use Apple. Three percent (3%) use some other system, and 27% say they do not use a computer at all. Forty-two percent (42%) of Americans 65 and older say they do not use a computer.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of Apple users say Jobs is the better innovator, compared to 14% who think that of Gates. Among Windows users, 34% give the nod to Gates while 22% prefer Jobs.

Last July when Gates stepped down as chairman of Microsoft, the majority of adults (59%) said he had done more for the computer industry than Jobs, his biggest rival. Just eight percent (8%) thought Jobs had done more for the computer industry overall.

Forty-eight percent (48%) of adults have a favorable view of Jobs, with 19% Very Favorable. Eighteen percent (18%) regard him unfavorably, including five percent (5%) who say that view is Very Unfavorable. Thirty-five percent (35%) are not sure what they think of Jobs.

Twenty-five percent (25%) of men have a Very Favorable opinion of Jobs, compared to 13% of women. But women by nearly two-to-one over men also don’t know enough about Jobs to have an opinion of him.

Men also have a higher regard for Jobs as an innovator compared to Gates than women do. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of those who earn more than $100,000 per year rate Jobs the better innovator versus 32% who say that of Gates.

Jobs announced last week that he was taking a leave of absence to deal with an unspecified medical condition. He has lost a great deal of weight which has prompted many to speculate that the cancer he fought off in 2004 has recurred. Jobs has said only that he has “a hormone imbalance,” without further explanation.

Bloomberg News has reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at Apple’s handling of Jobs’ health issues, amid concerns that the company is not disclosing enough to shareholders.

Forty-two percent (42%) of Americans say they have been following recent stories about Jobs and Apple, with 11% saying they have been following them Very Closely. Twenty-one percent (21%) say they are not aware of the story at all.

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