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Gates is likely to get a similar amount of attention -- he's the world's richest person (most of the time), and his history of philanthropy is noteworthy all by itself. Gates' success in business is noteworthy regardless of what you think of the quality or innovation of his products. No one much remembers how Carnegie made his fortune, but they remember the libraries and the university.

I think what people are losing sight of is that Jobs' influence extends far beyond Apple's own products. Microsoft was not working on a GUI until they saw prototype Macs. MP3 was a fringe technology before the iPod. No one paid for it (there was no way to) before iTunes. Smartphones before the iPhone had tiny screens, WAP browsers and styluses. Tablets before the iPad had desktop operating systems, and again with the damn styluses.

In each of those cases, the Apple product drew a sharp line across the calendar, dividing the history of those technologies into the epochs before and after. When Henry Ford decided to mass-produce an affordable car for the middle class, that affected everyone who later bought a Chevy. Others follow, some more successfully in terms of units shipped and money made, but we tend to remember those who blaze the trails.