Jobs\' next steps

Steve Jobs' celebrity status may be increasing in the near future, says Bob Keefe of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Newly dubbed the "king of entertainment" by Keefe, Jobs is set to change the entertainment world with a possible new Apple media center and the merge of Pixar with Disney, the two top animation studios. With the ability to combine Apple technology with the content of Disney, Pixar, ESPN, ABC, and others, Jobs may be able to "seamlessly move entertainment across home televisions and computers, iPods, cellphones and other devices" in the near future, says Keefe. "Sometime in the immediate run, maybe two or three years out, I think he'll be able to create one big experiment ... one big new thing ... that if successful will forever change the [entertainment] business."

"Steve is a very driven man making a point — that he's the best and the smartest and that he can change the world," says Paul Saffo, a director of the Institute for the Future think tank. "This guy comes down to a mix of three things: pragmatism, idealism and sheer drive."

Computers are already fast becoming vital to business, and Microsoft has a secure hold on that market, but Keefe says that "as computers and related devices become vital to home and mobile entertainment, Apple and Jobs' bet on consumers may be starting to pay off."

by MacNN Staff