Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been named to TIME Magazine’s 2010 list of The World’s Most Influential People and is also featured onTIME’s extended cover.

The 2010 TIME 100 list is divided into the following categories:

• Leaders: Sarah Palin, Manmohan Singh and other global movers and shakers
• Heroes: The inspiring feats of an urban farmer, an air-traffic controller in Haiti and icons like Bill Clinton
• Artists: Lady Gaga, Conan O’Brien and others who make us dance, giggle and retweet
• Thinkers: Steve Jobs plus scientists, statesmen and a Supreme Court Justice
• Social Networking: An in-depth look at who on our list holds the most influence in our interconnected world

TIME’s entry on Steve Jobs is written by artist Jeff Koons: Apple’s core ideal has always been to make people’s experience of computing as accessible and pleasurable as possible. As a young man, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, decided to be the Beatles of computing. I once said that I make what the Beatles would have made if they made sculpture, and I can appreciate how Steve, 55, applies their ethos of optimism to his work. The tools he has given us, from the Macs at my studio to the iPhone in my pocket, are like clean, new windows, fitting between our selves and our work elegantly, naturally and unobtrusively.
It’s great to see Steve stay true to his vision. I can imagine some young artist saying today, “I make what Steve Jobs would make if he made sculpture.”

TIME’s full list is here.

“What I can’t figure out is why he (Steve Jobs) is even trying (to be the CEO of Apple)? He knows he can’t win.” – Bill Gates, June 1998

Cringely writes, “Look at the two companies today. Jobs is still running Apple despite cancer and a liver transplant while Gates has moved on to saving the world at the Gates Foundation. Microsoft is worth $240 billion, a tiny drop from 12 years ago, with the shares now around $27 (down from $29). Nothing gained in more than a decade. Apple shares, on the other hand, have gone from $7.25 to almost $240, Apple’s market cap has risen more than 33X from $6 billion to $220 billion. And Cupertino’s cash hoard today is almost exactly the same as Microsoft’s at around $40 billion.”

“It’s pretty easy to argue that Jobs did win. Certainly Apple has the mojo lately with its string of home run products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad. Even Mac market share is up in the double digits and Apple’s profit margins are the best in the industry,” Cringely writes. “The trend line is definitely up for Apple and mildly down for Microsoft.”

Cringely writes, “What Bill Gates didn’t count on when he declared Jobs a loser back in 1998, was the Californian’s tenacity. It took 12 years to do it, but Apple is well positioned now to take Microsoft’s crown.”

Full article here

Source: MacDailyNews

“Faced with questions at the annual shareholders meeting over what Apple would do with its cash — which stands at about one-fifth of its market capitalization — Jobs said having the money at hand offers security for the company,” Madway and Oreskovic report. “‘When you take risks, it’s like jumping in the air. When they don’t work out, it’s nice to know the ground is always there,’ the chief executive said.”

“Since Apple spends little on acquisitions, analysts and shareholders want the company to put the money to work through a cash dividend or share buyback,” Madway and Oreskovic report. “But Jobs — who skipped last year’s annual meeting because he was on medical leave for a liver transplant — indicated he saw such a move as having little lasting impact on Apple’s share value.”

Madway and Oreskovic report, “The company he founded was now big enough that it had to ‘think big’ to move the needle, Jobs said.”

Full article here.

“Ever wonder why analysts and journalists grossly overestimated the price of the Apple tablet prior to its official announcement? Part of the reason is that Jobs had said during a 2008 earnings call that Apple could not make a $500 computer that was not a ‘piece of junk.’ That assertion lent credence to rumors that the tablet would cost $1,000,” Chen writes. “Oops. The entry-level iPad announced in January will cost: $500, at least at the low end of scale. Presumably Jobs doesn’t consider it a piece of junk.”

Chen writes, “What follows is a list of five more famously misleading quotes that Jobs pulled from his bag of tricks.”

• No Plans to Make a Tablet (iPad)
• Not Interested in the Cellphone Business (iPhone)
• People Don’t Read Any More (e-reader)
• No Movies on a Tiny Little Screen (video iPods)
• We Don’t Need to Add New Stuff (camera in iPod touch)

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

Buchanan continues, “Apple forced the music industry to charge 99 US cents per song, so why are they helping publishers set their own prices? To screw Amazon.”

“The difference between Amazon and Apple is this: Amazon is very much in the ebook business to sell ebooks.. Apple, on the other hand, sells content in order to sell hardware,” Buchanan writes.

“At this moment, Amazon owns ebooks. The book publishers’ fears are the same as the record labels with iTunes: They’re paranoid about losing control over pricing, and their own digital destiny. They’re worried that books are being undervalued, and that once people have the mindset that the price of an ebook is $US9.99, and not a penny more, they’re doomed,” Buchanan explains. “They needed an insurgent player: Apple.”

“Apple has advantages that Amazon didn’t have with music: Scale and technology. iTunes has just moved three billion iPhone apps. Apple’s sold over 250 million iPods,” Buchanan explains. “By contrast, Amazon’s sold an estimate 2.5-3 million Kindles since it debuted two years ago. Analysts predict Apple will sell twice as many iPads this year alone.”

Buchanan continues, “In terms of technology, e-ink looks old and busted and slow next to the iPad’s bright, colour display… An iPad can do more than books: Beautiful digital magazines, interactive textbooks, a dynamic newspaper. Oh, and it’s a computer that does video, apps, music. Amazon’s scrambling now to make a multitouch full colour Kindle after betting on e-ink, but that kind of development takes at least a year. Even if they churn out a full colour reader that is somehow better than the iPad, it likely won’t matter: It would just be a very nice reader to iPad’s everything else, and it would be nine months too late.”

“Price would’ve been Amazon’s major advantage over Apple too – being able to undercut Apple by setting whatever price they needed to compete would’ve been its ace in the hole against the iPad’s flashy colour screen, and everything else it can do. And now that’s poofed,” Buchanan writes. “Apple will be able to sell you ebooks for the exact same price as Amazon. By turning the publishers against Amazon, they’ve effectively dicked the Kindle over.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

A little more than a month later, on November 10, 1997, new Apple Interim CEO (iCEO) Steve Jobs responded, speaking in front of an image of Michael Dell’s bulls-eye covered face, “We’re coming after you, you’re in our sights.”

On January 13, 2006, after a little more than eight years of hard work, Apple Inc. passed Dell, Inc. in market value, $72.13 billion vs. $71.97 billion at market close, respectively.

• 2X: On July 27, 2007, Apple’s value doubled that of Dell’s, $127.81 billion vs. $63.65 billion, respectively.

• 3X:On December 6, 2007, Apple’s market value passed 3 times that of Dell’s, $165.66 billion vs. $54.42 billion, respectively.

• 4X:On May 01, 2008, Apple’s market value quadrupled that of Dell’s, $158.66 billion vs. $38.97 billion, respectively.

• 5X:On February 12, 2009, Apple rose $2.60 to hit a market value of $88.37 billion or 5 times that of Dell’s $17.52 billion.

• 6X:On October 20, 2009, Apple rose $11.21 to $201.07 to hit a market value of $180.12 billion or more than 6 times that of Dell’s $29.97 billion.

• 7X:In NASDAQ trading today, Apple gained $7.57 to $210.64 to hit a market value of $189.72 billion or more than 7 times that of Dell’s current $27.03 billion.

Apple is also a debt-free company and currently has significantly more cash and short-term investments on-hand ($39.8 billion) than Dell Inc. is worth.

Got any snappy retorts now, Mr. Dell?

See AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ here.

Source: MacDailyNews

Electronista reports, “Several eyewitnesses, allegedly including Apple executives and Jobs’ friends, say they’ve heard Jobs state that the project is the ‘most important thing I’ve ever done.’”

“Jobs has long been rumored as having devoted full attention to the tablet, especially since his return from medical leave in June,” Electronista reports. “Most believe he last gave a similar level of care during the development of the iPhone.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews

Mintz replies, “Apple Inc. won’t let us peek into Steve Jobs’ personal bank account, so we’re going to have to rely on some facts and some educated guesses to answer this one.”

“Apple went public in 1980. From then to when Jobs was forced to resign in 1985, he was likely paid a salary and may have sold some stock,” Mintz reports. “The Associated Press reported that in the summer of 1985, Jobs sold about $14 million worth of Apple shares. So one guess is that Jobs hired a savvy money manager to invest at least some of those earnings.”

“Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, and has been paid $1 a year since 1998. He currently owns about $1.2 billion worth of Apple stock,” Mintz reports. “Jobs also holds $4.4 billion worth of Walt Disney Co. stock, which he received when he sold Pixar Animation Studios to Disney in 2006. Disney pays investors an annual dividend of 35 cents per share. For Jobs, who has about 138 million shares, that comes out to about $48 million a year.”

Full article here.

Source: MacDailyNews