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Steve Jobs Biography Reviewed and Other Tidbits From the Book

Apple Big Mac said:
That statement to Sculley is surprising. I wonder how much more SJ would have been able to accomplish if he had continued leading Apple instead of getting forced out and going on the NeXT path.
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Steve Jobs sometimes remarked (and I agree with him) that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that ever happened to him.

The Steve Jobs who got fired from Apple wasn't a very good businessman. He was too immature. He was too mercurial. He was too impatient.

The time Steve Jobs spent with NEXT taught him about the realities of the computer business. About how hard it is to sell $10,000 machines to big insitutions.

Pixar was, if anything, more instructive to Steve. He thought he was buying a computer company. But as it turned out, he was buying a collection of very talented, very creative people: Guys very much like himself. And Steve learned first the value of patience, and secondly the value of letting very talented and creative people do their best work.

The Steve Jobs who returned to Apple in 1997 was an immeasurably more seasoned, mature, and accomplished executive. A guy who'd got a couple more succesful (sorta, in the case of NEXT) startups under his belt. That bought him an immense amount of credibility and respect when talking to people at Apple. (There were quite a few people who'd been glad to see Steve leave Apple back in 1985.)

People have commented about how rich Jobs would have been if he'd just held on to his Apple stock. That's silly: If Steve hadn't sold his Apple stock back in 1985, he wouldn't have had the money to start NEXT or buy Pixar. And Apple would have gone bankrupt or been bought out sometime around 1999.
 
More than anything I just want to know one simple thing.
Is this book an accurate and unbiased account of Steve Jobs the man, not making him out to be an angel or a devil.
Saying how he was very hard to work with, like many bosses and his true issue with adobe, flash and the reasons behind apple doing things for profit as a company over and above all else.
I would like to read the truth.
 
WiiDSmoker said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)



The iPod is the key to Apples success. People didn't flock to Apple for OS X.
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More from iTunes than iPod. That locked people into their ecosystem and fought against piracy. I have this love/hate thing with iTunes, but that was HUGE for them and the music industry. Eliminated physical media and became the #1 store for digital multimedia content. Go to any electronic store and the CD section gets smaller and smaller.

But yes, the iPod was huge. But people also are forgetting iOS is a stripped down version of Mac OS X and iPhones happen to be Apple's most popular product as of today. Even more than iPod's first four years. The most active section when it comes to views in MacRumors happens to be the iPhone section. iPhone is an extension of the iPod/iTunes ecosystem that was established years ago but with Mac OS X shrunk and put into out pockets thanks to Scott Forstall's team.
 
I'm guessing this book will break sales records like any other :apple: related product, I would love to buy it but I hate reading books. :p
 
sananda said:
Mine says "Dispatching Soon" with a dispatch estimate of 25 October. This is Amazon UK and free super saver delivery.
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Thanks, man. That's exciting for you- would be exciting for me too if I weren't over here in the US :( Mine has an estimated delivery of the 27-31 and is sitting at "Not yet shipped". I'm paying for standard shipping (3-5 business days)
 
Steve really can be inspiring because he took a negative like being fired from Apple and turning it into a positive with NeXT. There was a time after he got fired with Apple that he was really lost at what he was going to do with his life. Then NeXT was created. Then with no hard feelings, he revived the company he founded. A rise, then downfall, and then rise again before seeing his company still on top before his death.

The most fascinating part about Steve Jobs' life for me was in the 1970's. This was an insecure, skinny kid who was also described as a loner and helpless romantic writing Bob Dylan lyrics and Beat poems all night.

I am very curious about that Steve. The one before he became a KING. The hippie Steve. A typical Baby Boomer who eventually changed the world. He even dated Joan Baez for goodness sakes! That picture of him in Rolling Stone titled "The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew" had me thinking he looks so much like Ashton Kutcher with obviously more talent and brilliance. The excerpt with his ex-gf, Chrisann Brennan, was fascinating to me. From working as "Alice In Wonderland" characters to being a hopeless romantic. My fav read was when Chrisann was explaining their financial problems while walking along the beach. Steve took all the money out of his and her pocket and threw it at the ocean. That is the Steve I want to know more. The FREE SPIRIT that wasn't really in love with money, but deep down in his heart, was still eager in wanting to change the world. He always tried to think POSITIVE even in NEGATIVE situation. Even when the first Mac flopped in sales, he never thought of them as a flop. Always kept a positive mindset.

http://gizmodo.com/5850261/steve-jobs-as-remembered-by-his-first-girlfriend
We had very little money and no foreseeable prospects. One evening after we had splurged on dinner and a movie, we walked back to our car to discover a $25 parking ticket. I just turned inside out with despair, but Steve did not seem to care. He had a deep well of patience when it came to discouragements. We drove to the ocean near Crissy Field in San Francisco and walked out onto the beach to see the sunset, where I began talking about money worries. He gave me a long, exasperated look, reached into his pockets and took the few last coins and dollars we had and threw them into the ocean. All of them.
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I ordered mine on Amazon, i like a hard copy for books i actually want to read. I ordered mine a bit late but my estimated delivery date is 27th-31st . Hopefully i get it as fast was possible i can't wait to read it:D:D
 
Apple Big Mac said:
That statement to Sculley is surprising. I wonder how much more SJ would have been able to accomplish if he had continued leading Apple instead of getting forced out and going on the NeXT path.
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I actually disagree, I think it was necessary to rethink how to do things. It's not like nothing happened at NeXT either, Obj-C and OS X both came from it.
 
I wish the media hadn't littered all the Apple and gadget rumour blogs with excerpts from the book. Ruined some of the surprise, though I will still pick this up.
 
parnas said:
And so is Apple now with Tim Cook :)
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Cook's background is in Industrial Engineering from Auburn and an MBA from Duke.

He's got a good background to run a company. Having Ivy and the rest of the creative and engineering divisions being extended authority other corporations would never extend will continue to allow Apple to lead and not follow the industry.
 
koobcamuk said:
I wish the media hadn't littered all the Apple and gadget rumour blogs with excerpts from the book. Ruined some of the surprise, though I will still pick this up.
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I agree 100%. I'll still pick up the book. But I'm going to read it January 1 next year. Simply so I can forget all the spoilers and read it and be happily surprised when I read the book.

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NutsNGum said:
No.



No.
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parnas said:
No.
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No.
 
mdriftmeyer said:
Cook's background is in Industrial Engineering from Auburn and an MBA from Duke.

He's got a good background to run a company. Having Ivy and the rest of the creative and engineering divisions being extended authority other corporations would never extend will continue to allow Apple to lead and not follow the industry.
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Well, I wasn't badmouthing Cook. I was just making fun of that particular quote :)
 
Trying to figure out when my copy will be delivered. Pre-ordered in the first week of October from B&N.

Ship date says the 24th, not sure what that mean exactly.
 
Steve left a clear imperative. Thermonuclear. Please (note sentiment) do not copy me. I will follow you relentlessly beyond the grave.

Never screw someone with no limits or boundries.

Respect. I suggest unconditional surrender.

Rocketman

P.S. $40B referenced willing expense to enforce is less than 30% of future cash flow and declining vs. time. Warning, warning, danger, danger Will Robinson [-robot] (Android. Samsung. Plonk.........)
 
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Just came back from a uni trip and in the services where we stopped off at they were selling them today for some reason. Didn't have money on me to by it but had a read of it for 10-20 mins and thought it was very good from what I read.
 
rudigern said:
I actually disagree, I think it was necessary to rethink how to do things. It's not like nothing happened at NeXT either, Obj-C and OS X both came from it.
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Objective-C was only licensed by NeXT, not invented there. But their licensing definitely made people aware of it.
 
BlueParadox said:
Here in Australia, the book is now available. So I downloaded the sample in iBooks to read on my iPad 2.

There appear to be many glitches in the layout. The list of characters, for example, has a lot of lettering double-ups and such.

Anyone else had the same issues? I'll probably buy the ebook but it would be a pity if there was this problem throughout the rest of the book.

Whatever the case, this book will make for a great read.
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Maybe that's why we only paid AU$9.99 for it - cheapest price in the world (think it must have been a mistake!)
 
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