Time Magazine Names Steve Jobs Among 20 Most Influential Americans of All Time - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Time Magazine Names Steve Jobs Among 20 Most Influential Americans of All Time

time all time 100 influentialTime yesterday released a list of the 20 most influential Americans of all time, with Apple founder Steve Jobs making the cut for inclusion in the list. Jobs is the final entry on the chronologically-sorted list that includes such figures as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, and the Wright brothers.

Jobs was a visionary whose great genius was for design: he pushed and pushed to make the interface between computers and people elegant, simple and delightful. He always claimed his goal was to create products that were “insanely great.” Mission accomplished.

The new Time feature is part of a promotion for the publication's new book covering what it judges to be the 100 most influential people of all time, a list that also includes Jobs.

Time also releases annual lists of the world's most influential people, with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Jobs' biographer Walter Isaacson making the 2012 list back in April.

Popular Stories

apple back to school sans airpods 2

Apple's 2026 Back to School Offer is Coming Soon

Sunday July 12, 2026 7:29 am PDT by
Apple's stores will be rolling out Back to School marketing materials this week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This suggests that the offer will begin in the U.S. in the next few days. Last year, college students and educational staff could receive a free accessory like AirPods 4 or an Apple Pencil Pro with the purchase of a qualifying Mac or iPad model. The Back to School offer is in...
Waze logo

5 New Waze Features Rolling Out Now: Here Are All the Details

Monday July 13, 2026 3:42 am PDT by
Google today announced that Waze is getting a handful of new features, including some Gemini-powered personalization enhancements for Conversational Reporting. Conversational Reporting already uses Gemini when users report traffic incidents like slowdowns, but now you can use it to suggest map updates like road closures or outdated addresses. Saying something like "The road is closed here"...
Mac Pro Feature Teal

Apple's M7 Ultra Chip Designed to Match a 2019 Mac Pro Feat

Sunday July 12, 2026 8:53 am PDT by
Apple's M7 Ultra chip coming in 2028 is designed to support up to 1.5TB of unified memory, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. However, whether such a configuration is offered may depend on the state of the ongoing memory chip shortage. In 2019, Apple released an Intel-based Mac Pro with up to 1.5TB RAM....

Top Rated Comments

kavika411 Avatar
182 months ago
Hold on, Time, I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyoncé is one of the most influential Americans of all time... OF ALL TIME!
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
182 months ago
He deserves the title. 
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
182 months ago
because gates isn't dead.

They may add him soon enough. The guy not only created one of the most successful companies in history, but he is also leading the charge in tackling global problems through his foundation.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sixtafoua Avatar
182 months ago
I agree, but if he is on the list..how is Gates not?
Because gates isn't dead.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ping Guo Avatar
182 months ago
Ben Franklin doesn't make the list but Jobs does?

Edit: Neither do James Madison, writers like Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, and Hemingway, etc.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kdarling Avatar
182 months ago
Unbelievable. Clearly a bone thrown to today's kids.

Jobs belongs in an influential list for sure, but not within the top 20 of all time.

Might as well also put Ron Popeil in the top 20 list (at least he actually invented some of the stuff he sold).
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)