In yet another sign of how long Apple’s shadow truly reaches over the mobile industry, CEO Steve Jobs was bestowed with “Mobile Personality of the Year” honors at an event this week where the company wasn’t even in attendance.

AppleInsider is reporting on the new title of “Mobile Personality of the Year” for Steve Jobs, which was given to the Apple CEO -- despite not even being in attendance -- at the Mobile World Congress event this week in Barcelona, Spain. The title is decided by a vote of the attending media at the conference, where Apple was not even present, but certainly in everyone’s minds as the iPhone continues to be a thorn in the side of its competitors.

The annual GSMA Awards event was hosted by humorist Stephen Fry, a self-proclaimed Apple fan. The writer and actor was also on hand at last month’s iPad media event in San Francisco and came away impressed with the device.

There were winners announced in 19 different categories, including awards titled “Best Contribution to Social and Economic Development,” the “Green Mobile Awards,” “Mobile Innovation” and “Mobile Entertainment.” Apple’s competitor to the North, Blackberry maker Research in Motion, took home “Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Service” for their Enterprise Server 5.0. HTC also won “Best Mobile Handset or Device” for the Android-powered HTC Hero.

"A remarkable 500 entries from across the global mobile ecosystem were submitted this year, all of an extremely high calibre, and the winners should be incredibly proud of their achievements," said Rob Conway, CEO and GSMA Member of the Board. "The demand for new ways to use mobile technology continues to evolve and accelerate at a breathtaking speed, and it is genuinely inspiring to see such inventive thinking and exciting ideas showcased at Mobile World Congress."

Jobs is no stranger to having such lavish praise heaped upon him. Only last year he was named “CEO of the Decade” by Fortune magazine for Apple’s remarkable financial turnaround -- even while absent for the first half of 2009 because of his medical problems.

(Image courtesy of reghardware.co.uk)