Fake Steve Jobs calling it a day

Dan Lyons, the author behind Fake Steve Jobs.

(Credit: Forbes)

Fake Steve Jobs is no more.

Dan Lyons, the former Forbes writer and soon-to-be Newsweek writer, announced Wednesday in a rambling post that he's shutting down the tech industry phenomenon known as The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. After it launched in 2006, the blog quickly became a must-read for anyone intrigued by Apple, its mercurial founder, and Silicon Valley in general.

Lyons played up some of the well-known traits of Jobs and Apple, such as the CEO's preference for mind-altering substances earlier in his life and the company's obsession with secrecy, to great comic effect. But he also wrote withering posts about other tech companies and executives from Jobs' point of view. The anonymous nature of the blog sparked a frantic guessing game as to the author's identity, which was won by The New York Times in August 2007.

Fake Steve became the main character in a humorous book called Options, but after Lyons was outed the blog seemed to lose some of its immediacy within the tech zeitgeist. Recent guest posts from the likes of Fake Jerry Yang never really generated any buzz, and Lyons' decision to leave Forbes for Newsweek had already put the future of the blog in question.

Lyons intends to start a new site under his own name in the coming weeks.

[Galaxy5]

Ahh, let's take the ***** outta Dan for this.

*One of his favorite New Englandisms, apparently.

[Galaxy5]

I like the way he really put the microscope on Ballmer, Yang, and Google during his "serious" posts. He's quite the good writer and pretty insightful as well.

[Penguinisto]

Well, every meme must die, even the lame ones. I'm guessing that with nobody even bothering to read him anymore (seriously, the guy backed SCO in SCO v. IBM, even when the most basic read on the situation said that SCO was committing suicide). Buh-Bye, Dan - nice try, but you can join Rob Enderle and Laura Whats-her-name in the dustbin of credibility now.

[daftkey]

Wow.. backing SCO.. that's where he "lost credibility" for you? Like, up until then you thought he was being serious?

Brings a whole new context to your own posts, doesn't it?

[Penguinisto]

I merely pointed out the SCO debacle as the greater of many. Try not to read too much into a sentence, 'kay? ;)

[toosday]

I stopped being interested once he was unmasked. Part of the fun was not knowing who he was.

[Michichael]

I wonder if an argument could be made that the NY Times caused him a loss of business?

[dsstroud]

ALL the fun was not knowing who it was. Once he was unmasked, he should have ended it. It was funny, but a key element of the humor was not knowing the true author's identity.