This book presents a history of Apple corporation, virtually
from the beginning up through the late 90's when Steve Jobs
returned to the company. Apple fans will be very interested, I
think, in what went on behind the scenes during the times they
were deciding not to license out to clone manufacturers, why
they ended up with Motorola instead of Intel supplying chips
(and how close they came to the latter, which could have really
been a huge revolution), what happened with Gil Amelio, Steve
Jobs and the other CEO's and potential CEO's. There's also the
history of the various Mac lines in here, and a lot of amazing
stories about how close Apple came to folding just because of
unbelieveable arrogance and stupidity. There's also quite a bit
in here about the interesting relationship between Apple and
Microsoft over the years.
In a way, for Mac fans like myself, this book is both depressing
(seeing how many missed opportunities there were) and
filled with hope. After all, how could a company with so many
incredibly inept decisions still have such a loyal following?
It makes me confident about their ability to survive in the years
to come. If this book comes out with a new edition including an
update of the late 90's and more about the G3/G4 and future
direction of the company after 2000, it will be perfect. As it
is, it isn't a bad buy for a few bucks on the bargain shelf, where
you can easily find it these days (even in hardback).