After Steve: How Apple became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul
Written by Tripp Mickle
Narrated by Will Damron
4.5/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this audiobook
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 $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.
Tripp Mickle
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.
Related to After Steve
Related audiobooks
We Were Yahoo!: From Internet Pioneer to the Trillion Dollar Loss of Google and Facebook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Only Have to Be Right Once: The Unprecedented Rise of the Instant Tech Billionaires Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost its Soul Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Binge Times: Inside Hollywood's Furious Billion-Dollar Battle to Take Down Netflix Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leading Apple With Steve Jobs: Management Lessons From a Controversial Genius Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lego Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Success Code Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Secret Formula: The Inside Story of How Coca-Cola Became the Best-Known Brand in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk: Risking it All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Burger King: A Whopper of a Story on Life and Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Up Close and All In: Life Lessons from a Wall Street Warrior Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ambuja Story: How a Group of Ordinary Men Created an Extraordinary Company Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All In: How Obsessive Leaders Achieve the Extraordinary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Startupland: How Three Guys Risked Everything to Turn an Idea into a Global Business Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5George Soros: A Life In Full Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bill Gates: The truth about Bill Gates’s life and business success revealed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYellen: The Trailblazing Economist Who Navigated an Era of Upheaval Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saving Main Street: Small Business in the Time of COVID-19 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Business Biographies For You
BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Claim Your Confidence: Unlock Your Superpower and Create the Life You Want Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bond King: How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sam Walton: Made in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Steve Jobs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Autobiography of John D. Rockefeller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Founder: The Hidden Power of Being an Outsider Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elon Musk: A Biography of Business, Success and Entrepreneurship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jimmy Buffett: A Good Life All the Way Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Infamous Life: The Autobiography of Mobb Deep's Prodigy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Master of None: How a Jack-of-All-Trades Can Still Reach the Top Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surviving My Birthright Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Lego Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marathon Don't Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beating the Street: How to Use What You Already Know to Make Money in the Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for After Steve
27 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent book! I learnt so much. I would love to have a sequel up to 2024, as Apple is doing amazing :)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Interesting read and well worth the time if you have any sort of interest in Apple
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow! Overwhelming! Beautifully written! I've only known Steve jobs and apple from movies, and from the products they have created. This is book has given me a clearer view of the Man and the company that he has established together withe the great men within. The audio was delivered so well I felt that I can see everything described by the author! Definitely a must read!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great book, really enjoyed it. I recommend listening to Steve Job first.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Presenting Apple as the contrast between industrial design and cost control. Jonny I’ve is presented as the creative soul of Apple that Tim Cook didn’t appreciate or know how to foster. Certainly things that have been the foundation of Apple’s success. Design sensitivity certainly helped but there devices just worked better for a long time. The MacBook Pro redesigned keyboard is certainly an example of investing too much on thinner and lighter. Who can guess apple’s future.