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Summary: A very deep account of an amazing company
Review: The Jim Carlton's book is an amazing account of the turbulent history of the American icon, Apple Co. It is written in a very clear and dynamic style and everyone interested in this out of the ordinary company will enjoy it all through. I am still wondering how Carlton has been able to gather so much internal information about Apple. It is all there for you to read it.
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Summary: Why Apple is dying.
Review: Despite the die hard Macheads here to refute the truth, the book tells it like it is, and how I remember it. I bought two Macs before any IBM clone, and sold them for the reasons listed in the book. (lack of support). Apple, though they did a tremendous amount for the industry, were far too greedy, arrogant and shortsighted to compete with Microsoft. Their loss is deserved, and none should hate Bill Gates simply because Apple frittered away its firm grip on the industry. You have to really try fail as much as Apple repeatedly has.Computers need a standard, like VHS vs. Beta. If we had to deal with VHS and Beta when renting movies, we would all have less movie choices. Wintel is THE standard. At less than 3% market share for Apple, the battle is over. Now, the question is not whether Apple will come back, but how fast it will simply become another IBM clone. Notice how Apple uses PC emulation, IDE drives, ethernet, and PCI? The only difference between Apple and Wintel is a Mac OS that nobody wants to support. Apple will either die or become a PC. It seems it is doing both. Dan Burke
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Summary: Great Read!
Review: Fabulous book. If you care about the tech industry and love a good story of arrogance, blown opportunities, and corporate infighting this is a great read. Great story of Steve Jobs ignoring and mistreating Bill Gates.
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Summary: Long overdue critical look at what is wrong with Apple.
Review: This book reviews the cult like following of Apple Computer's Fans, known as the MacJihad to some, that buy Apple products no matter what. It reviews the blunders made by Apple in the past, and the things they did wrong with their OS. Some material is dated and no longer valid, but it shows the history that Apple had in developing bug filled products and having projects fail to make money or get accepted as "standards". It boggles the mind how a company like that can make big blunders and still stay in business. "Think Different" indeed! Think Again! Thank you for the history lesson, Jim Carlton.
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Summary: A Great Story, written like a first draft by a novice.
Review: I assume that Carlton's editors were not available to "edit" as this book is so poorly written and constructed that I gave up half way through (and wanted to much sooner). An example: How many times do we have to hear about how strangely Spindler acts or Sculley's health? Just once if it's only going to be brought up over and over and over and over and over and over (etc.) again like we hadn't just read about it in the last chapter (or page). This is one of the most fascinating corporate stories to tell and unfortunately, Carlton is over his head in the telling. A complete and total waste of time and money. Geez, I hope they don't try and make an $80 million movie out of this turkey. If only Tom Wolfe had done it.
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Summary: The reason why we "love the computer, hate the company."
Review: If you've been using Macs (and in my case, Lisas and Apple ][s) for a long enough time, you probably think you know all the imporant names and projects that have made Apple Computer great. Now learn about the failures, the project that were dropped too soon, or too late; the people you thought you knew, and how their egos and competitiveness ruined them. Learn about "Star Trek," the joint Apple, Intel project to run the Mac OS on Intel platforms -- before Windows 3. It ran. A group of twenty Apple programmers had arudimentary Finder running and ready to demonstate. Until Apple's fear of pissing-off Motorolla killed the deal. You may know that "Code Warrior" is the de-facto standard for application compilers for the Mac. How they got there, their brilliant demonstration of their superior product, and how it saved Apple's ass in 1994 is a masterpeice.
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Summary: Deep detail of Mac History that reads like a suspense novel
Review: This is a book for any computer lover who wish to understand why a great company missed so many opportunities to become the leader in the information age. This is also a book that will give important lessons about business and marketing. It reads like a novel and describes with impresive detail crucial moments in the history of personal computers. I highly recomend it.
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Summary: I guess you had to be there...
Review: With all due respect, an absolutely unappealing telling of the woeful tale of Apple's decline and fall. With a preponderance of quotes and footnotes citing other authors' books, I suggest cutting to the chase and reading the very best book on the subject of Silicon Valley including Apple, Robert X. Cringley's "Accidental Empires:How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date."
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Summary: The Best book on the topic (but not for everyone)
Review: This book presents a more complete story than any other book. It covers from the early days to today. Essentially the Apple Bible. Truely a must-read for all Mac fans and anyone studying the industry. Despite the fact that this "Bible" is overly long and tedious, it's a must read for anyone who have the time and interest.
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Summary: facts are outdated and flawed
Review: although this book was extremely informative and interesting, its facts were outdated, and occasionally flawed. parts of this book seem to have been written circa 1996, and other parts (many about the mac os itself) are just plain wrong. the only fact in the way of the alleged "demise" of apple is that there are too many fanatics who would rather die than use windows. macs are easier to use and have better graphics features than many other platform (including windows), which still makes them the top choice for many schools and most graphic professionals. since jobs' "return" to apple, it has been apparent that wonderful changes have been made. stock has risen, prices have lowered, quarterly profit has been announced, and over 100,000 imacs have already been pre-ordered. apple is definetely headed on the right track, and under jobs' leadership, it can go even further. it's not "over" for apple, it's merely a new beginning.
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