Apple:: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders

by Jim Carlton

This book, written by a Wall Street Journal technology reporter, is the most detailed study to date of the past decade of Apple's turbulent history.  Jim Carlton walks us down company corridors, into the boardroom, and through barriers to research laboratories, and reveals a seething cauldron of petty infighting and buried secrets.

Through exhaustive interviews with more than 160 former Apple employees, industry experts, and competitors--including Bill Gates, Scully, and Amelio--Carlton discovers confidential memos, late night rendezvous, and fateful decisions that forever changed the company's path.  He portrays a company very different from the glamorous technology leader that designed computers for "the rest of us" and illuminates what might have been and what really happened to this once-great icon of American business.

Genres: Business, Apple, Nonfiction, History, Computers, Technology, Biography

463 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Chris Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sad story of decline of Apple from Steve Jobs departure in 1985 and subsequent mismanagement and squandering of the large lead that Apple had over the rest of the personal computer industry. Learning about the many projects that were started but not completed during this era was very interesting. The contrast to Apple after Jobs' return in 1997 is stark.

[David Toub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I purchased from Amazon back in the 90's when Apple was circling the drain and Amazon was still very new. The book is a good read for the behind-the-scene activities and politicking that was rampant at Apple under Spindler, Amelio and John Sculley. Jobs was not featured that prominently in this book because at at time, he was just returning from NeXT and his exile and the author essentially wrote Apple off as an unsalvageable company. It's nice to re-read in light of how completely wrong the author was about Apple's fate.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent blow-by-blow of Apple Inc. misadventures by a Wall Street Journal writer; a classic of the history of the computer business genre, reflecting the early madness and thrills of Silicon Valley.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent blow-by-blow of Apple Inc. misadventures by a Wall Street Journal writer; a classic of the history of the computer business genre, reflecting the early madness and thrills of Silicon Valley.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. (This review was written in July 2011, a few years after reading the book.)

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read company profile for knowledge workers, managers, directors, C-levels, and entrepreneurs.