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.]