IT is not often that a company boss gets to bathe in the success of a product that is a smash hit with consumers. It is rarer still for that product to be genuinely important, transforming not just the company that designed it but the face of an industry.

It is even more remarkable for one chief executive to enjoy this level of success, not at one company, but at two quite different businesses in the same year. And to accomplish all this while undergoing treatment for cancer — well, that’s just incredible.

Yet this is the story of 2004 for Mr Incredible himself — Steve Jobs, 49, chief executive of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs is the man behind Apple’s iPod music player and The Incredibles,Pixar’s latest computer-animated blockbuster. The iPod and The Incredibles have both done terrific business this Christmas, providing a barn-storming end to a phenomenal year.

Jobs’s power in the entertainment industry made him a key player in another of the biggest business stories of the year — the attempt to unseat Michael Eisner as chief executive of Walt Disney. Jobs’s decision last January to terminate discussions to renew Pixar’s distribution deal with Disney was the catalyst for Eisner’s bruising battle with his shareholders.

There were other strong contenders to be Sunday Times Business Person of the Year. Sergey Brin and Larry Page added a few zeros to their fortunes by floating Google. Roger de Haan made more than £1billion from the sale of Saga, the travel and insurance group. And Lakshmi Mittal created the world’s largest steelmaker with a three-way merger that formed Mittal Steel. And there is always Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of the all-conquering Tesco.

But none of their achievements had the consumer and cultural appeal of the iPod. In the end, there could be only one winner, and it had to be Jobs.

Despite his trademark jeans and black polo-neck top, Jobs remains an aloof figure, obsessively controlling his company’s interaction with the outside world. Jobs and his executives are reluctant to be drawn on any subject much beyond the wonderfulness of Apple’s products. Even in the e-mail that in August announced he had undergone surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer, Jobs took the opportunity to point out he was writing on an Apple Powerbook computer.

With The Incredibles, Pixar has extended the unbroken run of success that stretches back over six movies, 16 Academy Awards and $2.5 billion to the original Toy Story. Pixar has shown Hollywood how to make great animated movies with wit and intelligent story lines. The Incredibles, the story of a family of retired superheroes, is forecast to take $600m in box- office receipts, and many millions more in merchandising.

The Incredibles is an enormous hit. But it is dwarfed by the success of the iPod.

This was the year the iPod finally took off. The original version of the digital music player had been around since October 2001, and it had repeatedly won applause for its stylish design and ease of use. But until this year, the media acclaim had run far ahead of sales.

With the iPod’s status as a fashion icon assured, Jobs and Apple have continued to drive sales with constant promotion and fresh innovation. This has led to the 1,000-song mini iPod — even sleeker and more fashionable than its grown-up sibling, and just the right size for a girl’s handbag. More recently there has been the iPod photo, which besides music can store and display 25,000 pictures.

Sales have accelerated through the year, reaching 2m units and $537m in the third quarter. With many American and British teenagers putting an iPod at the top of their Christmas wish-lists, analysts are forecasting that sales in the Christmas quarter could double again to 4m units.

This growth is supported by, and is encouraging, a revolution in the music industry. Jobs was in London in June for the European launch of Apple’s iTunes online store, which has almost single-handedly created a market for the legal downloading of music over the internet.

Despite numerous attempts to replicate iTunes’ simple pricing, Apple claims it retains a 70% share of the market in legal downloads. Ten days ago the company announced that more than 200m songs had now been bought and downloaded from iTunes.

Combined, iPod and iTunes have transformed the profile of Apple’s business. After several years of flat sales, Apple’s turnover has doubled in 18 months — from about $6 billion to about $12 billion.

The transformation has been fully recognised in Apple’s share price, which has more than tripled from $21 at the start of the year, and closed last week at $64. The company has been the best performer in the S&P 500 index this year.

The strength of the shares is not just about iPod sales. Apple says the popularity of the iPod is creating a “halo” effect, encouraging consumers to switch to the company’s iMac, iBook and Powerbook computers.

Last week The Wall Street Journal published extensive correspondence that lent some credence to this. One reader wrote: “As a lifelong Windows user, I was tired of the constant barrage of viruses and spyware. It got to the point where I felt like I needed to be a programmer to keep my Windows PC operational. After receiving an iPod as a gift, I was inspired to research other Apple products. In the last two months I’ve purchased an iMac G5 for my office and an eMac for home, both replacing Windows machines. I’m amazed at the elegance, simplicity and ease of use of these products.”

Even in its iPod business, Apple will face multiple challenges next year. Apple uses a proprietary music file format, thereby restricting the iPod’s ability to work with other music stores, and iTunes’ ability to work with other music players. Microsoft, and the multitude of music-player manufacturers swimming in its wake, are betting that Jobs and Apple will not be able to hang on to their early dominance of the digital- music business.

But these are problems for the new year. For now, Jobs can relax and celebrate a year of remarkable achievement.

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