After Steve

How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost its Soul

De: Tripp Mickle

Narrado por: Will Damron

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 over: 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 $2 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.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Tripp Mickle (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Captivating and Insightful

A very well researched book that recounts the important events that occurred at Apple after the death of Steve Jobs. While focused mostly on Jonny Ive and Tim Cook, I enjoyed the insights on the other executives like Scott Forstall and the creation of new Apple products and services after Steve. This book is a great listen and hard to stop. The narrator does a great job as well. I highly recommend it

The sequel to Walter Isaacson

Biography. Fantastic piece of research and writing. Worth the listen even if you’re not an Apple fan.

Deep dive into Apple

As much as there is probably a good amount of conjecture, this book is incredibly well sourced and the balance is fair, not trying to push any specific story. Really appreciated it, and it is an interesting deep dive into the world’s most successful company

Fantastic

Highly recommend for anyone who’s grown up from the days of Apple ][‘s two Steve’s with great insight to the Cook years.

Must listen for Apple fans!

The Apple of Steve Jobs has been greatly reported on, but it's rare to get such insight into how things have been since. This book goes into the changing of the company culture and the new projects like the watch, airpods, car, and move towards services. It's fascinating to hear the inside story of these products that I know so well about. I remember hearing rumors about why certain projects were designed a certain way and why strategies were implemented, but after listening to this you realize just how many of those were incorrect and in fact often the opposite! It explains a lot about how Apple operates today, Apple fans won't be able to turn it off until the end!

Amazing - from an Apple fan

This book breaks down a very important topic in a post Steve Jobs world. I grew up admiring Apple and loved watching Steve Jobs unveil new products. Super interesting to hear how apple has changed over the years and it gives a great insight on what to expect from Apple the next few years. Would definitely recommend the book to anyone who finds tech, apple or Steve Jobs interesting!

Amazing buck five stars all the way.

The book tells you where the name of the company came from he describes how Apple fell apart or the key people fell apart after Steve left or died I mean, just a very detailed book highly recommend if you’re an Apple fanatic

Very interesting, but redundant writing style and some facts just WRONG

Overall, this book was very good and seemed to represent a lot of hard work, extensive interviews, and interesting stories. But, I had a few problems with it. First, some “facts” were simply incorrect. For example, the author said, several times, that Jobs’ father was Iranian. All other sources, including the Isaacson book, other Jobs biographies, magazine articles, interviews, podcasts, and even Wikipedia, say that Jobs’ father was SYRIAN. Where did the author get this “fact” about his Iranian heritage? So then, if such a well known fact was so blatantly incorrect, then how many other “facts” are incorrect? Did the author really even do the research he claims to have done? Next point…why is there so much redundancy in this book?!? At first, it starts out, chapter by chapter, alternating between Jonny Ive and Tim Cook, and the story is presented chronologically. But then in the 2010s, the story gets a little more mixed up and starts to blend both of their stories together, often repeating some points (for dramatic effect??) throughout. Finally, the narrator, while he has an excellent speaking voice, seems to try a little too hard at times to convey emotion in the reading. I almost felt like he was crying during some sadder parts of the story, but that can’t be right, can it?

Anyway, as an Apple and Steve Jobs fanboy, i believe this should be added to everyone’s must-read list of books, and I can’t wait to hear discussions about it on my favorite Apple podcasts (I’m talking to you, Mac Power Users!). But I would certainly like to hear some comments from people “in the know” about how factual this book was and whether or not people agree that with the loss of Jobs and I’ve, Apple has lost its soul. I know Cook and other bean counters don’t have the creative soul to carry the company forward indefinitely, but I have to believe among the thousands working in that spaceship building, there are more than a few very creative individuals who can push this great company to innovate again in the future.

An interesting view but a misleading subtitle

The subtitle of the book positions this as an expose of how Apple has failed to succeed after the death of Jobs. If anything it chronicles how Apple has largely succeeded and continues to somehow create new, innovative products like the Apple Watch. It’s a really interesting story that is more focused on Ive than Cook, which I appreciated.

Well researched

Well written and researched account if post steve Apple. I spent 15 years working in engineering at Apple and this account rings true. Minor inaccuracies don’t mar the overall narrative. I use Apple products every day, but don’t love like I did my Mac Plus, or even my iMac. Functional now, size and inertia hold Apple back from its former glories. Tim has shepherded the company through the death if Steve and beyond, Ive seems to have needed someone to reign him in to do his best work. Enjoyable performance, great content. Recommended.