2011 was not only a big year for Apple product releases and company developments, it was also a major period in which Apple-related events dominated the headlines like never before.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal proclaimed 2011 to be "the year of Apple, Inc."

According to the esteemed publication, eight of its ten most-read corporate articles this year were about Apple or its late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs. The WSJ, however, says this category doesn't encompass finance, political events or general news content - which would have included coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden and the Japan earthquake.

Still, the single more popular - or most-read - article in the corporate sphere of the WSJ's news reporting was the article that covered Steve Jobs' death in October at the age of 56. Interestingly enough, the second most popular article was coverage pertaining to Verizon's acquisition of the iPhone to its network at the beginning of the year.

Clearly, 2011 was a year in which people wanted to read about Apple and its iconic leader. In addition to the WSJ reader traffic surge whenever Apple was mentioned, Amazon.com's best-selling book of the year was Steve Jobs' biography, penned by Walter Isaacson.

Source: WSJ