Silicon.com has named its Agenda Setters for 2003, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs came out on top this year. Jobs beat out Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates and BBC director general Greg Dyke for this year’s pole position.
Jobs grabbed the top spot on this year’s poll after a 15th place showing in 2002 and a complete absence from the list in 2001. Why? The panel that picked this year’s candidates were “impressed by his decision to turn to the open source community to develop the core of the company’s next generation operating system, OS X, and a dedication to produce quality hardware such as the iPod music player.”
But what put Jobs over top compared to everyone else on the list was what has been at the focus of an immense amount of media and industry attention ever since late April — the iTunes Music Store. One of the panelists on this year’s judging committee said that Jobs had “lit a fire” under the music industry, proving that online music works.