Hundreds of millions of people use Apple products every day; several thousand work on Apple's campus in Cupertino, California; but only a handful sit at the drawing board. Creative Selection recounts the life of one of the few who worked behind the scenes, a highly-respected software engineer who worked in the final years of the Steve Jobs era--the Golden Age of Apple.
Ken Kocienda offers an inside look at Apple's creative process. For fifteen years, he was on the ground floor of the company as a specialist, directly responsible for experimenting with novel user interface concepts and writing powerful, easy-to-use software for products including the iPhone, the iPad, and the Safari web browser.
His stories explain the symbiotic relationship between software and product development for those who have never dreamed of programming a computer, and reveal what it was like to work on the cutting edge of technology at one of the world's most admired companies.
A5 E87 This book tells the story of Apple's evolution from the inside and its initial conception, when Steve was first driven by the power of design to establish it as the strategic core of Apple's business model. It is also for the millions of Apple users, admirers, fans, and critics who may be curious about the origins of the products and the brand they feel so deeply about.
Here is the story of the most amazing creative journey, which had to overcome tremendous opposition, both inside Apple and across the wider technology industry.
U62 E45 Jay Elliot was hired personally by Steve Jobs, just in time to accompany him on the last of his historic visits to Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, the visits that changed the course of computing. As Senior VP of Apple, Jay served as Steve's right-hand man and trouble-shooter, overseeing all corporate operations and business planning, as well as software development and HR. In Leading Apple with Steve Jobs, Jay details how Steve managed and motivated his people and what every manager can learn from Jobs about motivating people to do the best work of their lives.
U64 A There was a time, not too long ago, when the typewriter and notebook ruled, and the computer as an everyday tool was simply a vision. Revolution in the Valley traces this vision back to its earliest roots: the hallways and backrooms of Apple, where the groundbreaking Macintosh computer was born.
The book traces the development of the Macintosh, from its inception as an underground skunkworks project in to its triumphant introduction in and beyond. J63 I83 Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
Isaacson's portrait touched millions of readers. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.
His friends, foes, and colleagues offer an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values. U62 J Computer geniuses who've made it big are the ultimate heroes for many kids. These young millionaires in the high-tech and business worlds are big news today, but like all inventors before them, their work is based on the work of their predecessors.
A child of the 60s, Steve Jobs traveled around the globe in an attempt to find himself. He was a vegetarian, an environmentalist, and -- strangest of all -- is one of the most successful businessmen that the world has ever known. The story of how Jobs used his technical background to develop Apple Computer is a fascinating one -- even more so considering his abrupt departure from the company and later triumphant return as company savior.
Internet Resources These freely available online resources provide more information on Apple's history and the current state of the company. Apple: The first 30 years, MacWorld. However, a curious reader who digs a little deeper will find mistakes, overthrown CEOs, and much more.
Understanding why Apple became so successful requires looking back at its origins and history. From the first Apple computer the Apple I, which was just a motherboard without a monitor or keyboard to the latest iWatch, here is a brief overview of the chronology of Apple's innovative products.
However, it will mainly be remembered for helping the company get enough capital to build the Apple II in —the same year Apple officially incorporated. Although the Apple II was still selling, Apple as a company was in trouble when the s began.
The release of the Macintosh was a leap forward for Apple. Disappointing revenues from the Macintosh and internal struggles for control led to Apple's board dismissing Jobs in favor of John Sculley some sources say Jobs decided to leave. Under Sculley, Apple started growing its product lines. It created new products, including laser printers, Macintosh Portable, PowerBooks, the Newton, and much more. Apple products continued to sell at a premium, so the margins were generous for Apple and led to strong financial results.
During the same period, however, cheaper computers running Windows were serving a far larger middle market , while Windows also benefited from powerful Intel processors. By comparison, Apple seemed to be stalling. Amelio eventually set about addressing some of these issues by buying NeXT Inc. From the Macintosh onward, Apple has either been a reflection of or a reaction to Steve Jobs.
In the Macintosh, Apple was trying to create a machine that made computing simple and enjoyable. In particular, Jobs was out to create a user experience that would convince everyone to buy a Mac. He thought customers could not understand the value of a product until they were actually using it.
Unfortunately, Jobs was ahead of his time in —precisely 12 years ahead of his time. When Jobs overthrew Amelio and took Apple's reins once more in , the hardware had caught up to his vision for all things digital. He launched the iMac with a strong marketing campaign featuring the "Think Different" slogan.
Although Jobs is often given credit for spending the money and time on marketing, excellent marketing and branding have always been key to Apple's growth. The real difference between the iMac and all the products preceding it was the beauty and design. It was not a tower and monitor setup like every other PC on the market.
In , the iMac was the most aesthetically pleasing machine on the market. It was the computer no one knew they wanted until they saw it. It was elegant and, thanks to the OS upgrade, it was user-friendly. The iMac was just the start as Apple released a string of hit products that reflected the new focus on elegance and user experience. The iPod became the category killer in MP3 players, and the iPhone essentially launched and then dominated the smartphone market.
The iPad then somehow convinced millions of people that they needed yet another screen to consume content. All these devices were perceived as being better in quality—and certainly in design—than competing products. Jobs was relentless on design and indoctrinated the entire culture of Apple into the art of design. The other point he brought Apple back to in his second tenure is the ease of use. After a few minutes of using the wheel on an iPod or tapping icons on an iPad, these new forms of control became part of the simplicity that makes Apple appealing.
Now every product update from Apple is anticipated by the media and the general public, in addition to the fans that the company had from the start.
More importantly, all of these products moved Apple into a new business model of creating a tight ecosystem of hardware, software, and content. Apple didn't create iTunes to be a simple program for users to transfer MP3s onto iPods, as was the case with many other manufacturers' offerings.
Instead, the company attacked the concept of an album by breaking them into songs that would be sold individually at a fraction of the whole album's price.
The same process took place with software. Many popular computer functions could be done on Apple's mobile devices using stripped-down apps—available, of course, on Apple's App Store. Being the first big mover into many of these markets, Apple built the stadium and set the rules for the game. When you pay for books, movies, apps, or music on an Apple device, Apple gets a cut. Of course, this business doesn't generate as much revenue as selling an iPhone or an iPad, where the markup is much more generous.
That said, it is the content you buy through Apple that locks many people into buying Apple again when their i-devices get old. So the content part of the ecosystem pays off for Apple in the short-term and the long-term. I had designed many computers, so I was way ahead of him in electronics and computer design, but we still had common interests. We both had pretty much sort of an independent attitude about things in the world. They funded their entrepreneurial venture by Jobs selling his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak selling his beloved scientific calculator.
Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry with Apple by democratizing the technology and making machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive and accessible to everyday consumers. The next several products from Apple suffered significant design flaws, however, resulting in recalls and consumer disappointment. In , Apple released the Macintosh, marketing the computer as a piece of a counterculture lifestyle: romantic, youthful, creative.
Sculley believed Jobs was hurting Apple, and the company's executives began to phase him out. Not actually having had an official title with the company he co-founded, Jobs was pushed into a more marginalized position and thus left Apple in Just as Jobs instigated Apple's success in the s, he is credited with revitalizing the company in the s. In the ensuing years, Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook Air, iPod and iPhone, all of which dictated the evolution of technology.
Almost immediately after Apple released a new product, competitors scrambled to produce comparable technologies. In , Apple became the second-biggest music retailer in America — second only to Walmart, fueled by iTunes and iPod sales. Apple has also been ranked No. The studio merged with Walt Disney in , making Jobs Disney's largest shareholder. Jobs and Laurene Powell married on March 18, Jobs also fathered a daughter, Lisa, with girlfriend Chrisann Brennan in , when he was He denied paternity of his daughter in court documents, claiming he was sterile.
Lisa Brennan Jobs later wrote of her childhood and relationship with Jobs in her book Small Fry , published in In , Lisa wrote, DNA tests revealed that she and Jobs were a match, and he was required to begin making paternity payments to her financially struggling mother. Jobs did not initiate a relationship with his daughter until she was 7 years old. When she was a teenager, Lisa came to live with her father.
In , Jobs discovered that he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer. Instead of immediately opting for surgery, Jobs chose to alter his pesco-vegetarian diet while weighing Eastern treatment options. For nine months, Jobs postponed surgery, making Apple's board of directors nervous.
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