steve jobs was an evil despicable creature.

Influence on distribution of games -> Yes
Influence on hardware/software design -> No

Results feel like as if Einstein doesn't have any impact on our lives anymore, but in reality he made many things possible we now take for granted.

In terms of the current influence on the gaming industry as whole I would agree apple is huge... The iPhone has probably brought more new people into video games than the Wii, PS3, 360, DS or PSP... in fact discounting the DS it's probably more than the other 4 combined. It has also ripped quite a few casual gamers away from the occasional browser flash game. People will sit at a desktop computer with their browser open but playing games on their iPhone (or other smart phone, but again without the iPhone the smart phone market wouldn't be anything like it is today)

In terms of overall influence though, i agree apple is dwarfed by Nintendo and Sony, and should also come behind Microsoft and Sega, and probably Atari as well.

EDIT: looking at the OP again, it seems the top results are about hardware (iPhone vs. Wii etc)... While it seems very skewed in favour of the iPhone, I would say it has had a bigger influence on gaming than most other single pieces of hardware... the other contenders being Atari 2600, NES, Gameboy and DS (Wii and PS1 following behind)

The second list though doesn't make much sense to me, Steve Jobs the man has certainly not influenced gaming as much as Miyamoto... Even if Jobs personally developed/invented the iPhone and it's app store, which I would guess is not the case.

That shit cray

that is just sad...really sad

widen the market? The gaming business was shooting off before the iphone was ever released. and the iphone did jack s***, do people know that cell phone aps and games have been around since 2000? Should we give nokia credit for most important gaming influence because of their hit game snake?

so your saying, the guys that made the first game bases like the atari 2600 and nes, didn't influence as much? are you on crack? He just changed the distribution a bit, big whoop. We had that already on xboxlive, psn, and even wii.

The 1,000 people were probably professional shovelware manufacturers. I suppose the 99 cent price point was revolutionary for them.

Perhaps you don't understand what influence can mean, as I mentioned at the start of my post, the iPhone has probably brought more people into gaming than any single 7th gen hardware device, Wii and DS being the only close rivals.... Including historical hardware I did not say the iPhone has had a bigger influence than Atari/NES etc, but that it has had a bigger influence than most other hardware devices: 2600, NES, Gameboy and DS being probably the only 4 that influenced more.

I don't agree with the results in the survey, they are clearly very apple-centric, but you can't deny the iPhone's influence on the gaming market. It doesn't just mean having games on a phone (you seriously brought up 90s phone versions of snake? that's  like bringing up minesweeper in a best selling games discussion) or the way the games are distributed.... PS2 games were distributed in the same way PS1 was, doesn't mean it didn't influence gaming.

And I certainly don't think Steve jobs alone made any big contribution... as I said, even if he alone created the iPhone and app-store he would be in the lower end of the top 10 people to influence gaming for me... but as he isn't solely responsible for them he probably wouldn't make the top 20.

You also have the fact that it was the first successful disc-based console, something every home console has been after that gen.  Then you have the design of the controller, something everyone since has emulated.  Memory cards, again something everyone has emulated, until the recent inclusion of HDDs.  It also popularized having extras to a console besides gaming.  The PS1 played music CD's, the PS2 played DVD's and supported Linux.  And the PS3, well, it just does everything. 

Edit:  Oh yea, it also pushed gaming in the mainstream.