I can see both points of view and would settle somewhere in the middle by listing off what I think Steve is - er, was. =/

Steve was a fantastic businessman, and I do mean fantastic. The stuff he did with Apple was immense. He has a very good understanding for marketing and, with his intelligent charisma combined with the pre-mentioned business mind, innovated in areas that others in the technology business to this day are still catching up in and may be for some time.

Fast? No. Reliable? No. Powerful? No. These are all things which other companies have managed to put into their computer devices for some time. This is not where Apple opts to invent. Actually, it can be said that Apple is still catching up to other devices released long before their Apple counterparts in all three of these areas.

Steve Jobs - and credit must also be given to his marketing team who I can only assume he was heavily involved in - innovated in hype and fashion. They took products that were useful but considered vaguely geeky and turned them into things that people who were not normally into technology would want. While doing this, he did not exclude the 'standard' target audience, either. He was a master of product promotion to the point that long before an item was released, everyone knew about it and a massive number of people wanted it. He was like the technology equivalent of a producer of Pop Idol and X-Factor. In these shows, an individual is paraded in front of people for weeks if not months before they release a single, and that single will likely be a number one hit. Steve does the same thing with products in a way that no other that I can think of has ever done before - well, not successfully, anyway!

I don't know much about his actual inventions. I don't know much about how savvy he is with circuitry. But to my knowledge he has always been the businessman rather than the inventor. I could be wrong, though. I don't know if I would call him a great inventor because of that.

I would definitely call him a great innovator, but not because iPods and iPads are amazing products so much as because he can market a modern technology product to the wider population like no other businessman in history. He can make people want his product despite it being inferior to other products at the same price. He can make people parade his product like a girl shows off her engagement ring. This can even make some other people feel bad for not having his product. Incredible.

I agree with Manus that some things being attributed to him are extremely generous. I also agree with Miriel/Murd that some of the things he has done are incredible and highly innovative. I would not say his products are highly innovative... at least, not the iPod and iPad. This should not be seen as an insult to Steve Jobs, though. This actually makes his achievements all the more incredible.