Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but hard to read ...
Review: The book is not a pageturner and the style of it is very dry. Mr. Carlton is journalist for the WSJ and this is his first book - got the idea?But the information about past decisions made at Apple Computer, makes every Apple fan nearly whining and so it is a must-read. This book is sometimes a 101 in stupid management decisions! E.g. how to finance a multi-million research project and then kill it immediately, because someone without technical and/or marketing knowledge says "No". Or, how to ignore your best friends (MetroWorks), or - even better - make them hating your company (Adobe, Microsoft). If you would like to start-up the next computer company, are working as a VC or just bleed in Apple colours, then please read the book ... and you will understand every decision made by Steve Jobs!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Best High Tech Business Book
Review: Don't listen to those Apple weenies who can't stand to hear a negative word about their favorite cult. This is an exceptionally insightful book for anyone who wonders what really happens in the corridors of high-tech. It does not "dis" the technology; it tells the tale of corporate manuevering in excruciatingly plausible detail. Executives of all stripes, from any industry, will benefit from this cautionary tale.
Rating: 
Summary: Error! Crash(ing bore)
Review: Carlton takes one of the most fascinating legends of corporate America and turns it into a snooze-fest. He never manages to illustrate why Apple and the Macintosh were exciting and why their fans are like religious zealots - he just states it as a foregone conclusion and then gets back to documenting the endless corporate blunders. Which is important, but you have to know why Apple matters (mattered?) to find the blunders significant (or tragic). His writing is dull and sometimes downright strange -- one scene is set at a fancy Valley restaurant, and he pointedly notes that this restaurant offered escargot as an appetizer. I assumed the snails would figure prominently later in the anecdote (perhaps they were the inspiration for the current G3 campaign?) but THEY NEVER COME UP AGAIN. It's like he was just flummoxed by the existence of escargots and had to share his excitement. Wait for the movie.
Rating:
Summary: A true look at how a business should not be run.
Review: This has to be one of the best business books that I have ever read, it is very well researched and written. It is also a joy to read, and makes me sometimes start howling in laughter at the internal mismanagement of Apple. HATS OFF to Jim Carlton.
Rating: 
Summary: You have to wonder....
Review: After reading Jim carlton's book, you have to wonder what the Mac OS would be like today if it had competent management. This book is painful for any of the Mac EvangeListas to read, a pure joy for the Wintel set.
Carlton's book reads a little on the dry side, written more like a history text than a rousing, yet dramatic, tragedy. Even Amelio's rambling speech at the MacExpo near the end of his tenure doesn't sound like that big a deal, but it was a huge blow when it happened. Not that the WSJ ENCOURAGES creative writing, but this book could use a little more flair.
Not being on the inside of the industry, I'm in no position to comment on the facts, but what I did read made me want to turn the clock back 14 years and knock some heads together.
Rating: 
Summary: An unfortunately poorly told tale of a fantastic journey.
Review: I, personally, could not stop reading this book, despite the mind-numbing repitition and poor metaphors. It is somewhat saved because (I understand?) it is fairly accurate. What compelled me the most about this book was not the combination of bad decisions and bad luck, with some bad economics thrown in, that made the downfall of the company that invented the personal computer equally as fast as its rise. What I found the most compelling was the obvious pride of the fantastically intelligent think-factory that was Apple. Read between the lines, at it is obvious that Apple engineers had a genuine love for beautiful code: code that was thrown out at Apple is the code that Microsoft SELLS. Look especcially for the famous story of shaving the seconds off the startup of the mac 128K. The work was worth it, wasn't it? No matter how hard Carlton paints Apple as a failure of generals following different trails, he cannot hide the success and hope of the individuals who invented, reinvented, and most recently, fully made good on the promise of the personal computer.
Rating:
Summary: Answers the questions of why Apple is not the standard.
Review: After reading the reviews on this book, I must comment that the Apple fans must not have been reading the same book! The mistakes made by this company (the author is more than fair in his comments on the horrific performance of Apples' CEO's. If anything the author seems to be sickly enamored with John Skulley. Apples' major mistakes were enought to kill off 20 organizations. Yes I agree, Apple does make great products but it is now the Betamax in a VHS world. My questions of why didn't IBM coordinate their efforts with Apple? This question was answered by yet another failure of the CEO to do what was needed. The Author probes, and gives us insight into the personality of the CEO's (ie.) Mr. Amelio's "What's going to happen to me when we join up with IBM? Who's going to pay attention to a VP ? This ego centered CEO, and others in top management have driven this company into the ground. It only hangs on because of the great products produced by the workers - dispite management... If the facts from the author are correct, his journalist habits have served the reader well...
Rating:
Summary: A Tough Read For All But The Most Dedicated
Review: Jim Carlton's book takes a fascinating story and re-tells it - badly. The prose is deadly, even when the story is at its most compelling. Anyone who is familiar with the years of failure and foul-ups at Apple will find little that is truly new or original here, but anyone else will be appalled at the way the company threw away opportunity after opportunity. Having said that, Apple's story is not only a story of failure, it is also a story of success - just think of the great products the company has put out. Jim Carlton pays no attention to that. The book is a depressing read because it only sounds the one note: failure, failure, failure. And that is as hard on Apple as it is on the reader. The bottom line: would I recommend this book to a friend? No.
Rating:
Summary: So-so book badly in need of a technical editor
Review: Previous reviews have covered many of the flaws and good points of the book- I'll just add that it is a bit biased against Apple. Apple did do some things well- the Powerbooks and the PPC transition were done well. (Ask IBM about porting OS/2 to PPC- an utter disaster.) However, there are two areas where the book has major problems- one fixable, one not. First, events have moved so quickly at Apple that the book is already seriously dated- it doesn't cover the death of the clones, the death of Newton, Jobs and the permanent-interim CEO problems, etc. Easy to write a sequel here! The bigger problem is the huge number of technical errors in the book, such as Carlton's belief that only microkernal OSs can have memory protection and pre-emptive multitasking. He repeats this at least a dozen times, yet it's just plain wrong. Other massive errors include calling MultiFinder "A row of pretty icons" and saying that the Mac couldn't open more than one file at a time until Copland. The range and number of technical blunders really calls into question Carlton's understanding of computers as well as his comments that he uses a Mac. I know the book was written quickly, but even the most cursory editing would have caught these problems and made a so-so book into something far better. Eric Remy
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps a should-read but is this a must-read? I doubt.
Review: If someone wants to read about Apple, whether from an end-user's perspective or an industry insider's perspective, to search for what this company ought to do it right in a near future, this book should in the list of important readings. My warning to such readers is that it would take a lot of will-power or strong interests to keep wading through the stories presented in this book, i.e. blunders after blunders by Apple, and an endless list of "what if they did that, or did not do that at the time". Overall, I have become pretty much exhausted after finishing reading this book. A major part of that comes from Apple's past actions and/or non-actions as recorded in this book. At the same time, I have to admit that the rest my exhaustion certainly did come from the repetitive writing style of this book, as already pointed out by many other reviewers here.
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