Jobs most powerful person

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has officially taken the title of the most powerful person in business, ranking no. 1 on Fortune's Power 25 list ahead of Media colossus Rupert Murdoch. "During the first two decades of his remarkable 30-year career, the Apple Inc. founder twice altered the direction of the computer industry," says Fortune. "In 1977 the Apple II kicked off the PC era, and the graphical user interface launched by Macintosh in 1984 has been aped by every other computer since." The executive's iconic iPod became the 600-pound gorilla of the digital music player business, and Apple's unique retail stores recently helped the company to report yet another record quarter.

The business of desktop publishing, which is now a global endeavor reaping untold sums of money each year, was the brainchild of Jobs alongside the laser printer and personal computer networks. Apple's boss purchased Pixar animation studios for pennies on the dollar, only to sell the firm -- which now known to be largely responsible for the development of computer-animated feature films -- for $7.4 billion earlier this year.

"Since returning to Apple in 1997, he has changed the dynamics of consumer electronics with the iPod, and persuaded the music industry, the television networks, and Hollywood to distribute their wares with the iTunes Music Store," Fortune writes. "With his hugely successful Apple Stores, he gave the big-box boys a lesson in high-margin, high-touch retailing. And this year, at the height of his creative and promotional powers, Jobs orchestrated Apple's entry into the cellular telephone business with the iPhone."

Jobs is responsible for morphing no less than five industries into huge successes: Computers, Hollywood, music, retail, and wireless phones.

"At this moment, no one has more influence over a broader swath of business than Jobs."

by MacNN Staff