Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

Facebook's Zuckerberg beats Apple's Steve Jobs as Time Person of the Year

Time magazine this week unveiled its annual "Person of the Year," with the distinction being granted to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Apple's Steve Jobs came up short, but was named one of the magazine's "People Who Mattered."

"With each passing year Steve Jobs and his sleek Apple products not only succeed in impressing the techiest of tech addicts, they also manage to create a whole new batch of gadget enthusiasts," the magazine's profile of Apple's chief executive reads.

"And 2010 proved to be no different, with the release of the latest, smallest Macbook Air, renowned for its ultrathin, portable design and, of course, the release of the iPad, the 9.7" touch-screen tablet device that caused media folk and techies alike to rejoice and believe that it would revolutionize the online publishing industry."

The profile noted that in 2010, Apple's market cap passed Microsoft, making the Mac maker the largest technology company in the world. It also highlighted the success of App Store software like "Angry Birds," and Jobs' relationship with Pixar, which this year found great box office success with "Toy Story 3."

The profile also noted some of the "lows" experienced in 2010 by Jobs, including the iPhone 4 antenna controversy, and the fact that the iPhone remains exclusive to AT&T. It also noted the iPhone 4 prototype scandal, in which Gizmodo purchased a pre-release handset that was lost in a bar by an Apple engineer.

Jobs' appearance on the "People Who Mattered" list puts him among a range of people, including entertainer Conan O'Brien, football player Michael Vick, the cast of "Jersey Shore," and President Barack Obama. The short list of runners up was the Tea Party, Hamid Karzai, Julian Assange, and the Chilean miners.

Zuckerberg took the title of "Person of the Year," with Time crediting him for "connecting more than a half billion people and mapping the social relations among them; for creating a new system of exchanging information; and for changing how we all live our lives."

Earlier this year, Jobs invited Zuckerberg to his house for dinner to talk about Ping, Apple's social music discovery service. Facebook and Apple were involved in a spat when Ping launched, because Jobs said Facebook demanded "onerous terms" to connect the two services.

Jobs was named a finalist for the magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2009, when he made the cut of the final seven. He ended up losing to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake.