Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders

Rating:
Summary: flawed, finnicky but not far off the mark
Review: jim carlton's book is neither great nor bad.
it's interesting and at times repetitive, that's right repetitive. whilst some of our fellow amazonians are slagging it -
be fair, wouldn't you rather read it now as a book than later as a tombstone epitaph? and that old saying "the truth hurts" goes a long way to explain the mixed reviews.
pay the money and read carlton's book -
to save your own company or to learn more about the apple icon that is part of all of our lives
john buck

Rating:
Summary: An overly melodramatic commentary
Review: Complete with numerous incorrect analogies and weak metaphors, this books seems to be abound with skewed perspectives and "cartoonish exaggerations" of Apple. All togeather a poorly done "narrative" on Apple's past.

Rating:
Summary: A Story Without Soul
Review: Apple has some magical quality that makes people want to write and read about it: from the daily positive articles in its heyday to the daily negative artiles it has endured more recently. This book fits into that mold: it reports on almost every word spoken in any meeting, the personal history, fears, and needs of every character ever, but fails to describe the love for the wonderful technology that inspired both sides of the boardroom drama, and incites our interest in it. If you want to know the minutes of every board meeting to impress your buddies, go for it; otherwise, I would hold this book only as a companion to Steven Levy's _Insanely Great_. It was repetitive and there were blatant errors on various technological definitions.

Rating:
Summary: At least Kawasaki called his book hindsights
Review: Carlton's book reads just like the Wall Street Journal's coverage of Apple: biased sensationalism designed to sell. The book examines every one of Apple's mistakes -- painfully clear in hindsight -- without mentioning the many things the company did right. The text needs a better editor -- someone who can clean up the numerous factual errors, some of which seem intentional to get Carlton's message (that Apple screwed up) across.

Oh, and for the record, would you have listened to Bill Gates' 1985 memo? Remember that Gates had just blackmailed Apple (about continuing Macintosh applications development), that Microsoft was not the large company it is today, that one of Apple's major advantages was hw/sw integration (lost if they licensed), and that there was no reason to trust that Gates' intentions were good. I his simplistic hindsight, Carlton's book seems designed to sell the "tragic story of an American icon's downfall," rather than to explain what really happened.

Rating:
Summary: Guy's wrong..it's poorly written, repetitive & disorganized.
Review: Most of the reviews on this book are correct. The author shows how Apple was rotting but avoids making a more insightful analysis of the players and the industry involved. The book is poorly written, repetitive, disorganized, and not very focused on the important issues (this is similar to much of the reporting on Apple in the Journal and other major papers). Some passages even seem to reveal a lack of understanding of aspects of computing with heinous oversimplifications of certain events in the industry. I'm sorry that Guy Kawasaki (if the review is really his) thinks it's a well written book. The only part I thought was well written was Kawasaki's forward!

Rating:
Summary: Compelling subject, poor presentation
Review: I didn't need to read Mr. Carlton's bio to know he's a news journalist. The book reads like a 350 page news article. Tragic story, though, and worth sticking with for anyone who ever cared about Apple.

Rating:
Summary: Great insights, terrible writing
Review: If you can get past the lousy writing (Carlton does admit this is his first book) then this is a book filled with fascinating revelations about and insights into how the world's favorite computer company could screw up so badly. It does take some effort to get through, however; it's often dry, occasionally repetitive, and frequently irrelevant (Carlton has an obsession with one particular female executive's weight problem...he can't mention her name without commenting on it). Nevertheless, any Apple fan will find it worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating blow-by-blow account of Apple's fall
Review: This is a detailed account of how Apple went from the top to the bottom, due in major part, to an inept Board, poor top managers, and consistently bad decisions. The author provides corroborated details of some unbelievable incidents including one of their recent presidents found on all fours under his desk. This is a book that was difficult to put down. As an ex-Apple employee I was astounded at what I read. A true case study of all time.

Rating:
Summary: Good insights... lousy writing...
Review: As an Apple employee I liked Jim Carlton's book because of the behind-the-scenes glimpses at a company that I love. But, geez, I've never read a book that needed a good editor more... there are literally sections that repeat themselves word for word (and how many times can we read a gushing description of Steve Jobs' "long flowing hair and rock-star good looks"? Give me a break. I also disagree with people here who say that he gives Apple a "fair shake". I found his portrayal quite biased and one-sided. Carlton's history of Apple is one that is full of major blunders that would have saved the company (his view). The reality is that, for all its missteps, Apple did a lot of things amazingly well... but you won't find that history in this biased book.

Rating:
Summary: A definite read for everyone...
Review: I am an Apple loyalist but if I read this book two years ago things may have been different. reading this book frustrated me to know that with a few different decisions, maybe the DOJ would be after Apple today and not Microsoft. Carlton did a good job in researching the topic. However, my only complaint is that it is difficult to follow along. Reading this seems like reading an overlapping Gantt chart. The writing style is certainly not as smooth as I would have liked. If you are planning to read this book you more or less have to read it in a straight setting as you need to reead it all and then do a "merge" of dates and events in your head to get a clear view of the big picture. Following Apple from its early days I was familiar with a lot of what the book presented but Carlton reveals a lot more shocking details of projects that were put on the chopping block. For example the "Star trek" project. Had that flown, there would probably be healthy competition amongst all PC's and not necessarily the Windows domination. Oh well great book a definite read for anyone who 1. loves Apple 2. is in the computer business and 3. plan to be in the computer business.