In Popularity Smack-Down Steve Beats Oprah
10:44 am, October 13th, 2009, Ed Sutherland
When it comes to gadget-hungry teens, Steve Jobs makes Oprah look like some cable-access talking head. At least that’s the findings of a telephone survey of 1,000 12 to 17-year olds. Jobs was deemed the ‘most admired celebrity entrepreneur’ by 35 percent polled versus 25 percent for TV magnate Winfrey.
By comparison, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk received 16 percent of the votes and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had 10 percent of the survey results.
“Surprisingly, teens chose a business legend from the technology sector over fashionistas, Facebook and even the Queen of Daytime,” the Junior Achievement organization said in a statement.
Although Jobs was chosen as the most admired celebrity business person, 85 percent of Oprah fans said she “made a difference in/improved people’s lives or made the world a better place.” Just 61 percent of Jobs’ fans cited that reason for their vote.
The survey appears to echo an earlier report by financial analysts at Piper Jaffray showing 86 percent of teens own an iPod versus 3 percent for Microsoft’s Zune.
[Via 9to5 and AppleInsider]
Posted by Ed Sutherland in News | Comment on this article
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This is actually unsurprising but not at all good news. People who make cool products aren’t really more important to society than people who open schools for the underpriviliedged in Africa, are they?
JAYnLA, on October 13th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
85 percent of Oprah fans said she “made a difference in/improved people’s lives or made the world a better place.”
How, may I ask? Alrigtht, I assume she does the usual charity stuff, but she’s sod all for me! Well apart from making get off my fat arse and go do something more interesting, everytime her fugly-mug appears on the TV!
Is Jobs top of this poll for simply being more marketable as a leader in his field? You ask a 14 year old to name 5 very famous websites ( Amazon, Google, etc ) and then name the founders, finally ask to describe what they look like? Now you ask them to name and describe the Apple founder or the Microsoft founder, they would most likely be able to do it instantly, ‘cos these two guys have been marketed as the ultimate in geek-chic celebs.
Fuzzypig, on October 13th, 2009 at 1:22 pm