Reviews

"Do you like high-voltage showdowns, bigger-than-life heroes, and ego-enhanced decisions that could lead to a fatally crippled company? If so, read "Apple."" -- "Wall Street Journal""Delicious reading." -- "Business Week""Fascinating. The hubris, missteps, and the missed opportunities [at Apple] are the stuff of legend in the computer industry, [but] Jim Carlton dishes out the best dirt yet." -- "Washington Post Book World""An impressive, thorough history. . . . Carlton's reporting is stellar."-- "San Francisco Examiner"

How many companies were started in a garage by a couple of whiz kids, went on to a global presence with multibillion dollar sales, and within 20 years came close to bankruptcy? Meet Apple Computer. Wall Street Journal reporter Carlton follows Apple from when it produced the first Macintosh personal computer, designed for those with little or no technical knowledge. Sales rocketed and Apple became the darling of computer enthusiasts. But Carlton also points out lost opportunities along the way, involving insufficient licensing efforts, mergers allowed to fail, unwillingness to permit products to evolve, lack of interest in exploiting the Internet, and blindness to competitors. Carlton lays much of the blame with Apple's board of directors. An epilog on recent changes at Apple is being added at the last minute. Recommended for larger nonfiction collections and special libraries with an information technology clientele.‘Richard S. Drezen, Washington Post News Research Ctr., Washington, D.C.