Steve Jobs Is Not TIME's Person of the Year But Receives Fond Farewell

Steve Jobs was not chosen as TIME's Person of the Year but did receive a fond farewell.

TIME selected 'The Protester' as their Person of the Year saying, "No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square, it would incite protests that would topple dictators and start a global wave of dissent. In 2011, protesters didn't just voice their complaints; they changed the world."

John Lasseter writes the farewell for Steve Jobs:


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I thought of Steve almost as a brother, and he never ceased to amaze me. I was fortunate enough to go down to Apple many times and see the early development of his products. One time Steve said, "You know, everybody has a cell phone, but I don't know one person who likes their cell phone. I want to make a phone that people love." That was the foundation of what became the iPhone. Or he would say, "What if you could have a thousand songs in your pocket?" "What if you could store a thousand photos?" "What if you could easily edit your own home movies?" His wife Laurene and the kids were so important to him, and that affected the ideas he came up with. He thought about what technology could do for families.

Before he went back to Apple, we were on Charlie Rose together. Charlie asked him about Apple on the air, and Steve didn't really answer. But after the cameras were off, he turned to Charlie and said, "I know how to save Apple. But they're just not listening to me yet." I thought, "Huh. That's interesting." A few months later, Apple bought NeXT, and Steve sat me down at Pixar and asked my permission to go back to Apple. He didn't want to do it without our blessing. He said he wanted to go back because the world would be a better place with Apple in it. That was incredibly touching to me, and it showed that Steve cared about people. He knew that his products and technology could improve people's lives.
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Tim Cook also received mention as a 'Person That Mattered'. Doug Aamoth writes:

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When Apple CEO Tim Cook took the reins from Steve Jobs in late August, observers from Silicon Valley to Wall Street wondered whether the longtime chief operating officer could truly replace the iconic company's venerable co-founder. Cook, who joined Apple in 1998 and had handled day-to-day operations since 2005, had answered that very question a few years earlier in an interview with Fortune, saying, "No. He's irreplaceable." But before Cook fully took over, he pinch hit during Jobs' medical leaves in 2004, 2009 and 2011 and by the end of each stint, the company's stock price was in better shape than when he first took over. In fact, under Cook's watch, Apple became the most valuable company in the world during 2011. Irreplaceable though Steve Jobs may be, Apple's in very capable hands with Tim Cook behind the wheel.
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Check out the entire list and the runners up at the link below...

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