Fake Steve unmasked, becomes Mainstream Media Parody Steve

Fake Steve, an often-hilarious blog purporting to be the true thoughts of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, has been revealed as the work of a 46 year-old writer for business magazine Forbes.

Daniel Lyons: a.k.a. Fake Steve Jobs.

Daniel Lyons ‘fessed up to being Fake Steve over the weekend, after his secret identity was discovered by New York Times reporter Brad Stone.

Lyons said he started the blog after reading several articles about executive blogging and finding the blogs they referred to were less-than-revealing. Parodying that lack of candour seemed like a good idea.

Helped by some hilarious insults and sharp parody of Apple (Bill Gates was generally referred to as ‘Beastmaster') the blog became so popular that readers' appeals for its continuation twice defeated Lyons' intention to wind it up.

While Lyons lived Steve Jobs' life for over a year, he has no particular attachment to Apple. Indeed, Lyons says he has never written about the company and told Stone he had to buy books on Apple to make sure he knew enough Apple back story to make his posts compelling.

Lyons' exposure will not, however, end the blog

Indeed, his post to Fake Steve revealing that his cover has been blown delights in the fact that the blogosphere had no success uncovering his identity.

"One bright side is that at least I was busted by the Times and not Valleywag," he writes.

"I really, really enjoyed seeing those guys keep guessing wrong. For six months Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth put their big brains together and couldn't come up with the answer. Guy from the Times did it in a week. So much for the trope about smarty-pants bloggers disrupting old media."

The ultimate irony, however, may come from what will happen to the blog now that Lyons has been unmasked.

"I'm coming back next week, badder than ever, with a new sponsor -- my homeboys at Forbes.com. Turns out they've been reading FSJ and liking it too. Who knew?"