Rating: 
Summary: Carlton's Book is an Excellent and Concise History
Review: Jim Carlton's book is the only accurate and clear portrayal of one of the most complex and creative companies in history. Much has been written about Apple Computer, it's triumphs, turmoils and losses. Nobody, except Mr. Carlton, has taken the time to actually seek out the players and review the facts as well as the outcomes. This book is not only great reading, it is very educational. It helps understand how a corporate culture can hurt as well as build and how low smart people can sink in a very short period of time. This book truly depicts one of the great sagas of our age. The only item I would have liked to have seen (at the end) was some recommendations from some of the notable players (such as Bill Gates) on how to turn this thing around. It's not over yet! Two thumbs up.
Rating: 
Summary: A close minded look into the computer industry
Review: This book will leave you with an unsettled feeling concerning how decisions are made in competitive industries in general. I give it two thumbs down.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book tells Sad Tale
Review: This is one of the best and most fairly balanced books that I have read in quite a while. Jim Carlton deserves many bravos and I've already sent the word around my small company that eveyone should pick up this book if the subject of Apple interests them. This book is the second half of the story that started in Frank Rose's West of Eden. Carlton exposes life at Apple; warts and all.
The people at Kirkus reviews need to have their heads examined in a serious way.
Jim, Bravo and job well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but with several flaws
Review: The book shows hasty editing, a lack of continuity and several factual errors. This does not, however, detract from the important lessons it conveys about managing high growth and high technology. More than anything, it shows that religion and the arrogance that comes with it can cause the best technology to whither in development, the biggest business advantages to fail to keep customers, the most powerful organizations to sacrifice their own best people, and the smartest individuals to forget their own fundamentals. Apple stands as one of the saddest stories of our industry. Despite the obvious challenges in organizing the chronicle of Apple's downfall, I was disappointed with how difficult it was to build a coherent mental picture of the sequence of events at Apple. Chapters are redundant and repetitive, covering overlapping periods of time. Many chapters go back and forth in time as well, in attempt to develop a coherent topical narrative, but so doing, losing the temporal chain of cause and effect. As a person who consulted for Apple and NeXT and served as a technical strategist for Microsoft during much of Apple's largest downturn, I found many factual errors. Some errors were technical, some had to do with people's responsibilities, some were small misrepresentations of events, and some were because the author was not "inside" enough to know all the details of what had really happened. None of them, however, were drastic errors and are probably within reasonable editorial license. The lessons here were still important. I found Guy Kawasaki's foreward to the book quite ironic. As the chief Macintosh "Evangelist", it is people such as Guy who strongly contributed to the religious fervor that deluded so many of Apple's executives and employees. In the foreward, Guy praises the Army's tradition of AAR, After-Action Reviews, designed to let the Army learn from mistakes and successes. Guy gives his own AAR, including his list of ways to fix Apple. I noted, however, that nothing in his list addressed preventing Apple from once again becoming deluded in its own religion. The industry has evolved and passed Apple by. It will not allow Apple to ever be the old Apple again. Jobs will not bring it back. As one of the first independent Macintosh developers who put a lot of time into the Macintosh and believed in its principles, I feel a sense of loss. A final note about the Kirkus review. That reviewer reviewed an earlier edition of the book. The book now carries an Epilog that discusses events through August 1997, including the search for a new CEO and Steve Job's de facto CEO role, but not the descision to stop licensing the Macintosh OS to clone companies like Power Computing. Interestingly, the author writes that he expects the CEO spot to be filled by the time the book is in press, which is not true. The author lists his A-list of CEO candidates, but fails to note that the re-emergence of Jobs' power at Apple is itself a deterrent to strong candidates for the CEO position.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing and Fascinating Account!
Review: "What happened?"...I've read bits and pieces about some of the strategic blunders made by the top management throughout the years, but there still was a missing piece as to why Apple is in the shape it is today. This book provided me the missing part, and I finally understand what really went on behind-the-scenes, inside Apple. Some of the things that happened are so unbelievable and appalling, and even painful to read. Had all this happened to any other company but Apple, it probably would not have survived. The fact that it somehow did so far represents to me "Hope" in Pandora's Box. This book is a well written, detailed study of an American icon company. It is far from dry, however, and reads like a novel with plenty of colorful characters including Jobs, Gates (who was not the Darth Vader-like despicable character as we often perceived), Ellison, McNealy, and Jean-Louis Gassee. I recommend this book to anyone, and especially to those who care at all about Apple and the Macintosh.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! What a Blockbuster of a book!
Review: Listen to Guy, and ignor Kirkus Reviews.Every Mac user should read this book lest the same mistakes be made all over again. If you have any doubt whether Steve Jobs should become CEO, read the book ASAP.Although cliche, truly, I couldn't put the book down. Jim has done the Mac community a great service.
Rating: 
Summary: A Day Late and a Dollar Short
Review: Kirkus got it half right, Apple's one and only mistake was not licensing the Mac, but it was Jobs' mistake back in 1984 not Sculley's. I love my Macs, but they were stupid high expensive back in the late eighties and now Apple is paying the price. People wanted a cheap box that is "good enough". Will Apple over price Rhapsody too? Probably and it's a damn shame.
Rating:
Summary: If you ever loved a Mac, you need to read this book.
Review: Wall Street Journal writer, Jim Carlton, pens a detailed road map of the Byzantine politics and palace intrigue of a technology institution: Apple Computer. His timing could not possibly be better. Anyone who ever worked for Apple or loved the ease of use of a Macintosh computer should put this book on a "must read" list. Carlton shares with the reader a long twisting trail of bungling and exceptionally poor management. It all seems to go back to a "Reality Distortion Field" first invented by Steve Jobs. Under the effects of this "RDF" all business logic becomes warped. Carlton lists blunder after blunder to the point the book becomes as nauseating to read as it is impossible to put down. For the first time we learn Bill Gates advised Apple in 1985 to consider licensing as a means of creating a Macintosh standard. Instead of being the evil villain as Mac lovers choose to believe, Gates gave Apple the best advice they ever ignored. But each time Apple leaders came to a junction where they could travel the path which made business sense or do the dumbest thing possible, they always chose the path to oblivion. In words which will surely be remembered in American business history, an Apple rank-and-file employee wrote to Carlton, "As for Apple, between you and me, think of it this way: The soap opera was drama for years. Lately it has been farce. Now it seems headed for high tragedy." Because of the "Reality Distortion Field," management ran Apple as a cult rather than as a business, rarely taking the needs of their customers, developers, or business partners into account. A serious question evolves from the book as to who suffered the most, Apple employees or Macintosh customers and Carlton draws no conclusion. Indeed, the book ends in August of 1997, leaving Apple and the Mac ecosystem again at a junction in the road. Just as Steve Jobs arrives on his white horse to save the day. As a long time Macintosh lover, I have always wondered if Apple could survive their own self-inflicted stupidity. After reading this book, I no longer wonder. Neither will you.
Rating: 
Summary: Explosive revelations of why Apple stumbled so badly
Review: This book, which will be published on Nov. 3, is the result of more than 160 interviews I conducted of current and former Apple executives and employees, as well as other industry executives including Bill Gates. They reveal the shocking inside story of why this great American icon could have lost so much ground in the PC market that it today is in a battle for its life. As a Macintosh user, I was shocked and saddened to learn the true depth of Apple's management problems over the years that have been at the root of its malaise. In addition to serving as a cautionary tale to other businesses, the book offers a voyeur's look into the history of one of the most exciting and influential companies of the 20th century
Rating:
Summary: Interesting to see the accumulation of "could haves"
Review: While others have noted the writing style (tolerable - I've seen far worse), the book as a whole is rather thorough and interesting. Granted, it was published before Apple's comeback, so there is (perhaps) too much emphasis upon the failures. However, the accumulated "could have" stories are interesting fare, things that may have been overlooked in the tale of a successful company's history. Here we see the flirtations with Sun, with Apollo, the AIM alliance and PowerPC, porting to x86 hardware, the Newton, and the spin-offs: webTV, Be, etc. Using hindsight 20/20, it seems that Jobs is under-represented. Yet, at the time of publication, I think that this book provided an accurate picture of how things seemed to line up.
I recommend this book, particularly to Apple fans and those interested in the history of computing. Additionally, this book is prime material for those interested in business blunders, particularly related to technology. For the latter group, this book makes a fine companion to the history of Xerox PARC, Dealers of Lightning. The works together provide a chilling view of how tecnhological innovation is often antithetical to business interests. I think that Carlton's work alone can make one consider the fate of technology in the hands of "big business".
|
