HarperCollins After Steve How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost its Soul.

by Tripp Mickle

From the Wall Street Journal’s Tripp Mickle, the dramatic, untold story inside Apple after the passing of Steve Jobs by following his top lieutenants—Jony Ive, the Chief Design Officer, and Tim Cook, the COO-turned-CEO—and how the fading of the former and the rise of the latter led to Apple losing its soul.
Steve Jobs called Jony Ive his “spiritual partner at Apple.” The London-born genius was the second-most powerful person at Apple and the creative force who most embodies Jobs’s spirit, the man who designed the products adopted by hundreds of millions the world the iPod, iPad, MacBook Air, the iMac G3, and the iPhone. In the wake of his close collaborator’s death, the chief designer wrestled with grief and initially threw himself into his work designing the new Apple headquarters and the Watch before losing his motivation in a company increasingly devoted more to margins than to inspiration.

In many ways, Cook was Ive’s opposite. The product of a small Alabama town, he had risen through the ranks from the supply side of the company. His gift was not the creation of new products. Instead, he had invented countless ways to maximize a margin, squeezing some suppliers, persuading others to build factories the size of cities to churn out more units. He considered inventory evil. He knew how to make subordinates sweat with withering questions.

Jobs selected Cook as his successor, and Cook oversaw a period of tremendous revenue growth that has lifted Apple’s valuation to $3 trillion. He built a commanding business in China and rapidly distinguished himself as a master politician who could forge global alliances and send the world’s stock market into freefall with a single sentence.

Author Tripp Mickle spoke with more than 200 current and former Apple executives, as well as figures key to this period of Apple’s history, including Trump administration officials and fashion luminaries such as Anna Wintour while writing After Steve. His research shows the company’s success came at a cost. Apple lost its innovative spirit and has not designed a new category of device in years. Ive’s departure in 2019 marked a culmination in Apple’s shift from a company of innovation to one of operational excellence, and the price is a company that has lost its soul.

512 pages, Paperback

Published June 8, 2023

About the author

Tripp Mickle is a technology reporter for The New York Times covering Apple. He previously covered the company for the Wall Street Journal, where he also wrote about Google and other Silicon Valley giants. He has appeared on CNBC and NPR, and previously worked as a sportswriter. He lives with his wife and German shorthaired pointer in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Andrew Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apple - a behemoth about which so much has been said and so much written. I went to this book from a curiosity to learn more having read the Walter Isaacson Biography of Steve Job. It told its story in an interesting and businesslike way - no criticisms there at all. It felt a smidge pro Jony Ive and anti Tim Cook but may have simply been telling it as it is - Ive comes across as a visionary who remained true to the ideal of Apple with Cook a pretty boring number cruncher driven by the Botton line. A quick internet search suggested there are elements of the Apple and people story not in the book, making me wonder if the author was slightly selective. Did I enjoy it? yes - would I recommend? yes for those who want to know more of Apple after Steve Jobs

[cagatay tanyildiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have previously read several other books and resources about Steve Jobs and Apple. I am always interested in hearing more about their creative processes.

This book is the first I have read about the company after Steve Jobs. I liked how the author constructed the narrative around Tim Cook and Johnny Ive. It is delightful to jump in between an operator's and an artist's view.

I liked where the author tried to stand. Such work can not be free of biases, but they try their best to give credit and criticize them respectfully.

If you like to read a journalist’s story about Apple after Steve, as the title suggests, this is a good one.

[Mitch Ping · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not an easy task following one of the greatest geniuses that has ever lived.

That’s why Cook didn’t try to mimic him. He just did things his own way. (That’s my biggest take away from this book. Is to do things MY way.) we all have an inner genius.

Fav quotes from the book:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
-George Bernard Shaw

“If everyone is busy making everything. how can anyone perfect anything? we start to confuse convenience with joy. abundance with choice. designing something requires... focus. the first thing we ask is ... what do we want people to feel? delight. surprise. love. connection. then we begin to craft around our intention. it takes time. there are a thousand no's for every yes. we simplify. we perfect. we start over. until everything we touch. enhances each life it touches. only then do we sign our work. Designed by Apple in California.”

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides very interesting insight into the secretive world of Apple!

[Robert's reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4

[Haroun Hassani]

Learned new things a bit outdated however (from 2025)

[Johannes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was one of the best I have read. Since I bought my first iPhone 6 I have been interested in Apple and how they operate. Steve Jobs seemed like a genius and probably also is, but after reading this book its clear that Tim Cook also is. They way he understands Apple as "Apple itself" is fascinating, it creates the perfect combination between high quality products and money making. I know a lot of people almost blame Cook for pumping all the money possible out of Apple, but so does every other CEO too, Cook is just better at doing it.

It was super intresting to read about their meetings amd choices they made with their products and how Jony Ive spots details and different materials. The book overall was a pleasure to read.