I have not read any books yet on Apple or on Steve Jobs. Back in 2007, I had come across the book by Wozniak and it was quite a hit. But I never ended up reading it. I have used many Apple products and most of them are quite good and well made. Their design and aesthetics is what surely stands out. And the bulk of that credit goes to Jonathan Ive. He had successfuly delivered breakaway products like iMacs, iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watch amongst others.
The book is well written and chronicles how, after Steve Jobs death in 2011, Tim Cook took over as the CEO and slowly the creative soul of the organization died and got taken over by people focused on finance, accounting, efficiency, and operations, rather than design, creativity, and bringing iconoclast products.
With Jobs gone, Ive fought it out for a long time, but finally exited Apple and found his own design firm.
I would highly recommend this book for it details many internal power struggles within Apple one may not have heard of. Also the author has painstakingly given a detailed background of the main characters, Ive, Cook and few others, and built up a well woven narrative. But hasn’t made it so detailed that it becomes boring. Those backgrounds were necessary to understand why those power clashes were taking place in the first place: because each person had a different rooting and a mindset to look at things.
I would suggest this book to not only Apple fans but also to business students because one gets to know how success is not a result of just hard work, but also of support, luck, and fighting it out. It goes without saying that since so many years, Apple’s phones have been launched with minimal changes and negligent upgrades. There was something magical about Ive and his design process which made the products irresistable. Though, one big learning for everyone from this book surely is: never buy the latest launched product, because it is always launched with missing features, manufacturing deadlines, and unhappy teams, and software bugs.
A must read in all ways!
Withered Papyrus 