Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin collectively top Business 2.0’s list of “The 50 Who Matter Now,” but hot on their heels is Apple Co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs at #2, up from #5 on last year’s list (Jobs, by the way, tops Business 2.0’s Readers’ list here):
Apple’s co-founder has started to channel his inner Wayne Gretzky. “I skate to where the puck is going to be,” Jobs said as he introduced the iPhone in January, “not to where it’s been.”
Given the continuing strength of both the iPod (100 million sold) and the iTunes store (2.5 billion downloads), it’s a credible boast. But will millions of Americans really pay $500 to replace their Razrs and Treos with iPhones? And will they come around to the Apple TV, a device so far ahead of its time that nobody’s quite sure what it’s for?
Jobs’s genius as a designer, product manager, and pitchman is that he’s never comfortable unless he’s pushing the envelope. And like an athlete at the top of his game, it’s hard to take your eyes off him.
Also on the list at #24 is Tony Fadell, Senior vice president, Apple and #37 Fake Steve Jobs, author of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs.
What about Microsoft’s Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, you ask? Both are conspicuously and rightly absent, but Gates does manage to replace Ballmer this year on Business 2.0’s list of “10 Who Don’t Matter” (that list is not yet online). Congrats, Bill!
More here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Matt” for the heads up.]
These things are stupid. A bunch of people decide to make up one of these nutty reports, they order sandwiches, and hang out in a conference room and say, “Uh Steve Jobs. Yeah we gotta have him. We didn’t have him last time did we?”
Business 2.0 magazine is the Wayne’s World of business publications.
Mister Spock.. Oops.. Sorry Mister Steve Jobs and “Sir” Jonathan should be there on TOP
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I still can’t believe how quickly the Mac community is growing. Every day I’m running into new people that have decided to buy a Mac and the light is shining bright. Amazing how Jobs has turned Apple around just by installing a few principles and sticking to the guns.
The only product that can kill an iPhone will be iPhone 2.0.
Ballmer and Gates continue their rapid trek towards irrelevance.
“When you grow up, you begin to realize you were only a fanboy of a company that didn’t deserve your slavish devotion. I’m done with all that.”
Exactly. That’s why I decided to choose to buy and use the best product money can buy: OS X.
(Unless of course your comment was astroturf, because obviously it doesn’t make sense. If you said Microsoft didn’t care about Windows, it would make sense, but not Apple or Jobs. OS X is at the core of the entire strategy.)
Everyone who owns a microsoft product is a direct beneficiary of Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. There is no denying that Microsoft’s primary R&D center is located in Cupertino, CA.
Fake Steve Jobs makes #37, but Gates and Ballmer are blissfully absent???
How the heck can Fake Steve Jobs be #37? He is just a guy who makes up silly posts on a blog. It’s not like his entries inspire technological innovations either. He may be funny, but if he were not there, it wouldn’t be a big loss.
Who’s your Daddy now, Bitch!
These things aren’t stupid, they’re fun. Lighten up Thelonious!
Fake Steve is only #37. He’s my most important read of the day!
No.50 CEO ‘Chairs unlimited’ Recieved a sharp boost to earnings as a result of the Balmy one throwing them about!.
Buy your shares now before the Balmy one reads this report and orders more chairs!!!
Sure, lists like this are pointless. But they do present a reflection of some polular thought, which can be useful.
It’s pretty stunning that Gates and Ballmer are absent and Gates actually “Doesn’t Matter”. Rightly so, to take 6 or 7 years to release Vista, essentially are giant system update that’s been reskinned (like WinAmp), is a travesty.
MS copies and repackages others products (Windows, Zune, Xbox, Surface [ROFLMFAO], etc.) and thinks that by throwing money at them and bullying the competition, eventually they’ll succeed.
What kind of twisted reality do these clowns live in?
“What about Microsoft’s Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer, you ask? Both are conspicuously and rightly absent, but Gates does manage to replace Ballmer this year on Business 2.0’s list of “10 Who Don’t Matter” (that list is not yet online). Congrats, Bill!”
Ouch! But you gotta love it.
Who is Ballmer and Gates?
Apple is ushering in the age of sci-fi personal tech. Steve is at the helm. Warp speed ahead, cap’n!
Steve Jobs could do nothing of significance without a team of bright and committed staff. Jobs should be grateful that he has a dynamic and intelligent group of people that work at Apple. If Steve wants to retain his lofty position he had better remember that he got there owing to the input and dedication of others who do not ever or often share the lime light.
As a fellow Mac user friend of mine is often quoted as saying….
“It’s fun living in the future”
Go Steve Go!
That’s Okay Bill, I don’t matter either. Except to my kids, and that’s where it matters.
“If Steve wants to retain his lofty position he had better remember that he got there owing to the input and dedication of others who do not ever or often share the lime light.”
Jobs regularly recognizes the Apple team. He is simply the icon for Apple. When you see his name on these lists, it’s really recognition of Apple’s importance. However, I think all agree that without Jobs influence Apple just wouldn’t be Apple. Lastly, Jobs doesn’t run these polls. He’s not up there because he’s been stuffing the ballot box for himself. He needs no scolding here, simply some congrats for him and the company.
What’s troublesome is that a ‘fake’ blog makes 37, so, notwithstanding the first names, doesn’t that make the balance of the list suspect?