Mr Lyons, who writes about technology, told the New York Times: "I'm stunned that it's taken this long (to discover my identity)."

'Ruined mystery'

He said he had had to buy books and biographies to "learn about a lot of the back story" of Apple.

Writing as Steve Jobs on the blog, Mr Lyons said: "Now you've ruined the mystery of Fake Steve, robbing thousands of people around the world of their sense of childlike wonder."

He added: "Apple faithful, here in our darkest hour I know what you're thinking: What's next for FSJ?

"Well, I'm taking a few days off to sit in a lake and do some yoga and meditation and non-thinking. Then I'm coming back next week, badder than ever, with a new sponsor - my homeboys at Forbes.com."

Mr Lyons told the newspaper that the blog was intended as an experiment to find out what happened if a company chief executive kept a blog and told the truth.

The journalist has used the blog to poke fun at many different figures in the technology industry, including Oracle's Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, and Google's Eric Schmidt.

The real Steve Jobs and Bill Gates admitted to reading the blog.