BusinessWeek Online has included Apple CEO Steve Jobs among the 25 people who revitalized e-business in recent months. The magazine says the people were named to the list “because of their vision, tenacity, new ideas, and ability to deliver on promises.”
Dubbing Jobs an innovator, BusinessWeek Online says you can count on him to “think different” as the famous Apple ad campaign urged. Before Apple rolled out the iTunes Music Store this spring, consumers were left with “little option” but to download music for free with all the bickering between record companies and online retailers over the best way to sell music on the Internet, the article says.
“Now, Apple has broken the logjam and made it possible for the music industry to successfully sell tunes on the Web. Jobs got the five major labels to agree on an appealing, simple set of terms,” BusinessWeek Online writes.
“All songs would go for 99 cents, with no frustrating restrictions limiting fans’ right to burn them to CDs, load them in a portable player, or share them with a few friends. Four months later, Apple has sold more than 10 million songs, and rivals ranging from Amazon.com Inc. to Microsoft Corp. are planning copycat services … Now, Jobs is looking to go further. By year-end, Apple expects to extend the iTunes Music Store to work with PCs that run Microsoft’s Windows operating systems, which represent more than 95% of the market. The trick for Jobs is to avoid leaving Apple where it often ends up — doing much of the innovation and getting a small cut of the sales.”