"After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost its Soul" gives a behind-the-scenes look at Apple's struggles following Steve Jobs' death through the career arcs of its top lieutenants: chief designer Jony Ive and chief executive Tim Cook.
Mickle spoke with more than 200 current and former Apple executives and employees, as well as key figures in Apple's history, such as Trump administration officials and cultural influencers, to illustrate how the company's achievements have come at great costs. The book raises the philosophical question of whether companies should be places where art leads to commerce or where commerce dictates art.
"Apple had to find an entirely new way to operate without Steve Jobs because he was literally at the intersection, like the spoke of the wheel, for everything that they did, and they deserve credit for figuring that out and excelling in the way that they did," he said. "But by the same token, because Jobs was central to driving product, no one else has emerged to fill his shoes.
"Steve Jobs was driven by gut and instinct and made decisions quickly and largely based and formed by his own taste, whether those tastes were his sensibilities around software or his kind of aesthetic sensibilities, which were heightened relative to others," he notes. "Tim Cook's a person who is really comfortable living in spreadsheets. He's really focused on numbers. He's inclined to analyze things and think about them deeply before making decisions.
Apple hasn't released anything more than iOS software updates in a decade. Tim Cook moved to China & stayed there.
What year was this headline from? 🤔👎🏼🇺🇸 not news
tim_cook
He’s been steering it for the last 10 years.