Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs divides opinions, sure he is a highly intelligent innovator with extreme vision and forward-thinking. On the other hand, he was rude and dismissive. I'm sure everyone has heard of the elevator speech. If you cannot explain what you did for Apple by the time the elevator reached the ground floor you were sacked. This might not be true but it has entered legend as to how Jobs operated.

This is a big and wordy book that takes a walk through Jobs's life focusing mainly on his life at Apple as is to be expected.

It sets out the events really well and the research really is very good. It explains how Jobs and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976, how they produced one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers.

I found the part about Jobs being forced out of Apple in 1985 and then setting up the NeXT, computer platform as well as his part developing the visual effects industry very interesting. People forget that Jobs helped fund Pixar.

The major part is of course how he took Apple, from the verge of bankruptcy and develop the iMac, iTunes, iTunes Store, Apple Store, iPod, iPhone, App Store, and the iPad. His mantra of 'think different' has led to a social revolution. whilst Iveminvented the product it was Job's that demonstrated the energy and vision in some respects to change the world.

There are some really good and interesting parts to the book but it is a very heavy read. I like Jobs and think he was inspiring but I had to keep putting the book down and coming back to it after a rest.

This is an excellent book for people who are hyper fans of Job's or Apple but you will need to put the work in if you are not a hyper fan then this book could be tough going.