After Steve

How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost its Soul

By: Tripp Mickle

Narrated by: Will Damron

Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

From the Wall Street Journal’s Tripp Mickle, the dramatic, untold story inside Apple after the passing of Steve Jobs by following his top lieutenants—Jony Ive, the Chief Design Officer, and Tim Cook, the COO-turned-CEO—and how the fading of the former and the rise of the latter led to Apple losing its soul.

Steve Jobs called Jony Ive his “spiritual partner at Apple.” The London-born genius was the second-most powerful person at Apple and the creative force who most embodies Jobs’s spirit, the man who designed the products adopted by hundreds of millions the world over: the iPod, iPad, MacBook Air, the iMac G3, and the iPhone. In the wake of his close collaborator’s death, the chief designer wrestled with grief and initially threw himself into his work designing the new Apple headquarters and the Watch before losing his motivation in a company increasingly devoted more to margins than to inspiration.

In many ways, Cook was Ive’s opposite. The product of a small Alabama town, he had risen through the ranks from the supply side of the company. His gift was not the creation of new products. Instead, he had invented countless ways to maximize a margin, squeezing some suppliers, persuading others to build factories the size of cities to churn out more units. He considered inventory evil. He knew how to make subordinates sweat with withering questions.

Jobs selected Cook as his successor, and Cook oversaw a period of tremendous revenue growth that has lifted Apple’s valuation to $2 trillion. He built a commanding business in China and rapidly distinguished himself as a master politician who could forge global alliances and send the world’s stock market into freefall with a single sentence.

Author Tripp Mickle spoke with more than 200 current and former Apple executives, as well as figures key to this period of Apple’s history, including Trump administration officials and fashion luminaries such as Anna Wintour while writing After Steve. His research shows the company’s success came at a cost. Apple lost its innovative spirit and has not designed a new category of device in years. Ive’s departure in 2019 marked a culmination in Apple’s shift from a company of innovation to one of operational excellence, and the price is a company that has lost its soul.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Tripp Mickle (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Captivating and Insightful

A very well researched book that recounts the important events that occurred at Apple after the death of Steve Jobs. While focused mostly on Jonny Ive and Tim Cook, I enjoyed the insights on the other executives like Scott Forstall and the creation of new Apple products and services after Steve. This book is a great listen and hard to stop. The narrator does a great job as well. I highly recommend it

The sequel to Walter Isaacson

Biography. Fantastic piece of research and writing. Worth the listen even if you’re not an Apple fan.

Deep dive into Apple

As much as there is probably a good amount of conjecture, this book is incredibly well sourced and the balance is fair, not trying to push any specific story. Really appreciated it, and it is an interesting deep dive into the world’s most successful company

Fantastic

Highly recommend for anyone who’s grown up from the days of Apple ][‘s two Steve’s with great insight to the Cook years.

Amazing - from an Apple fan

This book breaks down a very important topic in a post Steve Jobs world. I grew up admiring Apple and loved watching Steve Jobs unveil new products. Super interesting to hear how apple has changed over the years and it gives a great insight on what to expect from Apple the next few years. Would definitely recommend the book to anyone who finds tech, apple or Steve Jobs interesting!

Amazing buck five stars all the way.

The book tells you where the name of the company came from he describes how Apple fell apart or the key people fell apart after Steve left or died I mean, just a very detailed book highly recommend if you’re an Apple fanatic

Must listen for Apple fans!

The Apple of Steve Jobs has been greatly reported on, but it's rare to get such insight into how things have been since. This book goes into the changing of the company culture and the new projects like the watch, airpods, car, and move towards services. It's fascinating to hear the inside story of these products that I know so well about. I remember hearing rumors about why certain projects were designed a certain way and why strategies were implemented, but after listening to this you realize just how many of those were incorrect and in fact often the opposite! It explains a lot about how Apple operates today, Apple fans won't be able to turn it off until the end!

So I hear Tim Cook didn’t drop by the design department enough

This was an interesting story about the Apple corporation’s very recent history. The one thing I swear must have been repeated ten times was that Tim Cook didn’t drop by the design department to critique designs as often as the late Steve Jobs. It sounds like Jony Ive probably wouldn’t have hated Tim Cook dropping by the design dept. Cook is a very different leader than Jobs, but it sounds as if Cook has navigated some very difficult times effectively (like dealing with the trump craziness) with a level of diplomacy that the late Jobs would have never been able to pull off without losing his cool. I would have loved to have learned even more about Jony Ive, perhaps in another biography.

Love letter to a Corporation

great story delivered with a big sloppy kiss, a bit to much really. The audio book narrator adds to the surpyness.

Very interesting, not really sure if it earned its subtitle

So, this book was a real jog down very recent history. The products being discussed and the events are still very much with us. Hell, I’m listening to this on an iPhone. The tale of these two men working at opposite ends to keep one company going is fascinating, but I’m not convinced at the end that Apple has sold it’s soul. I needed something more to really hammer home that idea, which maybe got lost in the narrative flow. It does point to items one could argue are less creative, but then doesn’t mention at all the M1 processor, and how that efficiency is already completely changing the PC industry. It’s a good story, and a good bit of insight into men who aren’t incredibly public, and a company shrouded in mystery. I guess I did just want “one more thing!”