Becoming Steve Jobs
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The financial numbers and headcount statistics and other numerical information in this chapter came primarily from Apple’s SEC filings reporting its financial results for 1996 through 2000, so we are not citing them here individually. The notorious quote from Michael Dell suggesting that Jobs should simply liquidate Apple came during a Q and A session at the Gartner Symposium and ITxpo97 in Orlando, Florida, on October 6, 1997, http://news.cnet.com/Dell-Apple-should-close-shop/2100-1001_3-203937.html. Background information about Dieter Rams, the design genius who was the primary inspiration of Jony Ive, Apple’s head of design, came from the website of the German furniture design company Vitsœ, https://www.vitsoe.com/us/about/dieter-rams and https://www.vitsoe.com/us/about/good-design. The technical details we cite about the iMac and other computer models came from www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_ab.html.
Chapter 10: Following Your Nose
This chapter describes how Apple finally invented its way back to growing again namely by entering and shaking up an entirely different business, in this case personal audio electronics with the introduction of the iTunes music management application and the iPod portable digital music player. It also demonstrates in great detail the new methodology Jobs had come to embrace, which he called “following your nose,” rather than plotting out some sort of predetermined strategic “road map.” The significance of iTunes, the iPod, and later the iTunes Music Store is in how one led to the next and then to the next. I described this process in piecemeal fashion at Fortune as these products rolled out. Only in hindsight can you see how each was a case of Steve and his team following their noses, seeing what might be possible after each successive step. Again, the stories we reported, wrote, and edited for Fortune provide most of the factual basis of this chapter.
Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Tony Fadell on May 1, 2014; Eddy Cue on April 29, 2014; Jony Ive on June 10, 2014; Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; and Jon Rubinstein and Avie Tevanian on October 12, 2012.
The information and background about Gates’s keynote presentation at CES was drawn from Microsoft’s online press release archive. Financial statistics came from online SEC filings. Apple Computer Inc. online business document archive was the source of a press release dated January 16, 2001, “iTunes Downloads top 275,000 in First Week” and Apple Computer Inc.’s Annual Report for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2001. Other online resources for this chapter include Gartner Group website for various market statistics, http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2301715; and Quora.com, http://www.quora.com/Steve-Jobs/What-are-the-best-stories-about-people-randomly-meeting-Steve-Jobs/answer/Tim-Smith-18.
Chapter 11: Do Your Level Best
This chapter essentially tells the story of Steve Jobs, the merchandiser. Two stories by other Fortune writers provided some of the background: a 2003 cover story by Devin Leonard about the evolution of iTunes into a music retailing juggernaut, and another story by Jerry Useem, published in 2007, that describes how Apple’s retail stores became some of the highest-grossing stores of any kind in the world. Rick’s experiences as editor of Entertainment Weekly also contributed to our explanations of the dynamics of the music industry as they made a leap of faith into the digital future, by signing onto Apple’s iTunes Music store.
Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Eddy Cue on April 29, 2014; Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; and Laurene Powell Jobs on October 14, 2013.
Magazine articles we cited include “Apple: America’s Best Retailer,” by Jerry Useem, which appeared in the March 8, 2007, issue of Fortune; “Songs in the Key of Steve Jobs,” by Devin Leonard, which appeared in the May 12, 2003, issue of Fortune; and “Commentary: Sorry Steve: Here’s Why Apple Stores Won’t Work,” by Cliff Edwards, which appeared in the May 20, 2001, issue of BusinessWeek.
Chapter 12: Two Decisions
This chapter primarily chronicles the circuitous process of Jobs and his team arriving at the decision to make a mobile “smartphone.” We relied upon several new interviews to tell this story, as well as on Fred Vogelstein’s Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution for some of the background details, and Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs.
We also consulted various books and online articles, including Myron W. Krueger’s Artificial Reality II, to provide background on the evolution of the multi-touch user interface.
Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Jim Collins on April 15, 2014; Jony Ive on May 6, 2014, and on June 10, 2014; Tony Fadell on May 1, 2014; Laurene Powell Jobs on October 14, 2013; Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; and Eddy Cue on April 29, 2014.
Online resources we consulted include the Mitsubishi Research Laboratories website for an article titled “DiamondTouch: A Multi-User Touch Technology,” by Paul Dietz and Darren Leigh, published in October 2003, and reproduced online at http://www.merl.com/publications/docs/TR2003-125.pdf; the National Cancer Institute website, for background information on pancreatic cancer, http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/isletcell/HealthProfessional; and Apple’s online press release archive for Apple Computer Inc. financial results, August 2, 2004, and other corporate data.
Chapter 13: Stanford
This chapter describes Steve Jobs’s commencement address to the Stanford University graduating class of 2005. It was an unusual event because Jobs so rarely spoke publicly at anything other than Apple or Pixar events, and even then, only when he had a new product or technology to tout. Much of the chapter is derived from one of our interviews with Laurene Powell Jobs, who shared her recollections of her husband’s obsessive preparation for the speech, and also of the family’s misadventures on Commencement Day. Apple and Laurene Powell Jobs also granted permission to reproduce the memorable address in its entirety.
Aside from Jobs’s speech, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; Katie Cotton on April 30, 2014; Jim Collins on April 15, 2014; and Laurene Powell Jobs on October 25, 2013, December 6, 2013, and April 30, 2014.
Chapter 14: A Safe Haven for Pixar
This chapter is the largely untold, inside story of how Steve Jobs came to sell Pixar Animation Studios to the Walt Disney Company in early 2006, at a time when the relations between the two companies was particularly fraught. We relied upon the recollections of Disney CEO Robert Iger, Pixar founder Ed Catmull, and Pixar’s driving creative spirit John Lasseter to tell this tale, not unlike the plot of a Pixar movie, which almost always chronicles the personal growth of characters who sometimes stumble over their own feet. We benefitted from lengthy, enlightening interviews with all three in early 2014.
For background we also relied on two books: James B. Stewart’s Disney War and Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs.
Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with John Lasseter on May 8, 2014; Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; Ed Catmull on January 16, 2014; and Robert Iger on May 14, 2014.
Chapter 15: The Whole Widget
This chapter has several threads that reflect the new complexity in managing the company, soon to be called simply Apple Inc., as its business and product line broadened. Between late 2004 and 2008, Apple gave birth to the iPhone, endured a changing of the guard in the executive ranks, and entered into a new kind of business partnership with AT&T even as the company’s sales and ranks of employees nearly tripled. Meanwhile controversy returned to Cupertino, in the form of an SEC investigation into its procedures for awarding executive stock options, public criticism of working conditions at its contract manufacturer in China, a
nd accusations of antitrust violations in its collusion with book publishers over electronic book prices and with other Silicon Valley employers to reduce “poaching” of key employees. Apple kept on growing, and with the iPhone’s surging success, Jobs had completed his trifecta of landmark computers. All this despite the fact that his health continued to decline visibly. We benefitted from lengthy interviews with key current and former executives at Apple, including CEO Tim Cook, senior vice president of design Jony Ive, senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue, vice president of corporate communications Katie Cotton, and Tony Fadell, the founder of Nest Labs, which is now a subsidiary of Google. We also relied upon Apple press releases and SEC filings and court records about the stock option controversy.
Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Eddy Cue on April 29, 2014; Fred Anderson on August 8, 2012; Avie Tevanian on October 11, 2012; Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; Jon Rubinstein on July 25, 2012; Jony Ive on May 6, 2014, and June 10, 2014; John Doerr on May 7, 2014; Jean-Louis Gassée on October 17, 2012; and Marc Andreessen on May 7, 2014.
Online resources we consulted include Fastcodesign.com, the Fast Company magazine website that focuses on design, May 22, 2014, http://www.fastcodesign.com/3030923/4-myths-about-apple-design-from-an-ex-apple-designer; and the blog by former Apple engineer Don Melton, donmelton.com/2014/04/10/memories-of-steve/. Also, Apple SEC filings provided unit sales data each quarter from Fiscal Year 2000 through Fiscal Year 2013.
Chapter 16: Blind Spots, Grudges, and Sharp Elbows
This is an unusual chapter because rather than explain a sequence of events, we try to put into perspective certain of Steve Jobs’s more controversial characteristics and patterns of behavior, especially in the context of both Apple’s meteoric growth and success, and the pressures brought on by living with a terminal illness. Some of Jobs’s decisions and actions led to legal challenges in court and reprimands from federal regulators. Others resulted in nagging public relations problems. Still others were merely examples of a man who refused to sugar coat his opinions. We relied mainly upon court records and newspaper and magazine stories for the background of several of these debacles, and also asked Jobs’s closest work colleagues to reflect upon them. We don’t try to pass definitive judgment, especially on those legal cases that are ongoing. But we felt it was important to try to describe how these issues reflected aspects of Jobs’s personality and temperament at the peak of his success. We also describe some of the interpersonal dynamics of the executive team Jobs had assembled, and the period of transition in the mid-2000s when several key members left.
Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs over the years, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; Eddy Cue on April 29, 2014; Katie Cotton on April 30, 2014; Fred Anderson on August 8, 2012; Jon Rubinstein on July 25, 2012; Avie Tevanian on October 11, 2012; and Bill Gates on June 15, 2012.
Online sources quoted or consulted include a New York Times op-ed column “Talking Business: Apple’s Culture of Secrecy” by Joe Nocera, published on July 26, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/business/26nocera.html?pagewanted=all; the online press release archive of the Securities and Exchange Commission litigation archive for Release No. 20086 regarding the settlement of stock option dating issues, http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2007/lr20086.htm; the online archive of the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the antitrust complaint against Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar for conspiring to prevent competition for the hiring of technical employees, http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f262600/262654.pdf, and the complaint against Apple and several book publishers for conspiring to fix prices of ebooks, http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f299200/299275.pdf; “Thoughts on Flash,” an open letter from Steve Jobs explaining his reasoning for not allowing Adobe Corp.’s Flash media player software on the Apple iPhone, https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/; Apple Inc.’s archive of news releases for information about the company’s litigation against Samsung, which for many years was the leading maker of smartphones that used Google’s Android operating system; “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work,” by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher, published in the New York Times on January 21, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html; “In China, Human Costs Are Built into an iPad,” by Charles Duhigg and David Barboza, published in the New York Times on January 25, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html; “How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes,” by Charles Duhigg and David Kocieniewski, published in the New York Times on April 28, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html; “Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay,” by David Segal, published in the New York Times on June 23, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/apple-store-workers-loyal-but-short-on-pay.html.
We also consulted Vogelstein’s Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution for background information.
Chapter 17: “Just Tell Them I’m Being an Asshole”
This final chapter also covers a lot of ground, from my own interactions with Jobs over the last few years of his life, to the unusual circumstances surrounding his liver transplant in 2009, to the public criticism of working conditions at Apple’s contract manufacturer in China, to accusations of antitrust violations in its collusion with book publishers over electronic book prices and with other Silicon Valley employers to reduce “poaching” of key employees. We also describe how the iPad came to be Apple’s fastest-selling new product ever. The chapter’s primary intent, however, is to put in perspective the evolution of Steve Jobs from a reckless young entrepreneur into a seasoned builder of new consumer technologies and the businesses infrastructures required to deliver and support them. For this we draw largely upon the comments and experiences of many who knew him best.
Descriptions of the private burial service were provided to us by several individuals who were present but did not want their recollections attributed to them. The transcript of Laurene Powell Jobs’s tribute given at the public memorial for Steve Jobs on October 17, 2011, is used with her permission.
Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; Bob Iger on May 14, 2014; Eddy Cue on April 29, 2014; Lee Clow on January 20, 2014; Bill Gates on June 15, 2012; Laurene Powell Jobs on April 30, 2014; John Lasseter on May 8, 2014; Jim Collins on April 15, 2014; and Mike Slade on July 23, 2012.
We relied on the Cupertino City Council video archive to obtain exact quotes from Jobs’s presentation of plans for a new Apple headquarters, June 7, 2011, http://www.cupertino.org/index.aspx?recordid=463&page=26; and upon Apple’s online video archives to obtain the comments by Bill Campbell and Jony Ive speaking at the memorial for Jobs at Apple Inc. headquarters, October 20, 2011, http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/10oiuhfvojb23/event/index.html.
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