Apple after Steve Jobs is focus of forthcoming book
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Most of the hottest new books about tech companies have focused on startups and companies barely a decade old — but Silicon Valley stalwarts like Apple haven't lost all their literary luster yet.
Driving the news: Wall Street Journal reporter Tripp Mickle will write an as-yet-untitled book for William Morrow about the iPhone maker's last decade since the death of co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011 — the era in which design chief Jony Ive held sway over product design while CEO Tim Cook steered the companyt to new market highs and new revenue from services.
The intrigue: Jobs famously came back to Apple in 1997 and propelled it to new heights of success with the iPhone 11 years later. But since his death and under current-CEO Tim Cook, the company's introduction of major new hardware product lines has slowed.
- "[The Apple Watch] was the first product that was launched without Steve, and how does that change the process?" says Mickle, who's keenly aware that a number of books about Apple have been published, though none really capturing this most recent era.
- "We’ve all had a chance to see what the products are that Apple launched, but there’s an opportunity to see how these products came about," he adds.
The big picture: Apple is still an ultra-successful and stable company, so don't expect a tale of tragic meltdown from Mickle.
- "Apple has a net $100 billion in the bank —they’re the opposite of WeWork," he remarks, in reference to his WSJ colleagues' newly announced book about the troubled office co-working company.
Meanwhile: New York Times reporter Mike Isaac's Uber book, "Super Pumped," will be turned into a Showtime series with "Billions" creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien at the helm, Variety reports.
Go deeper: Silicon Valley, get ready for your closeup
Editor's note: This piece has been corrected to reflect the fact that Steve Jobs returned as Apple's CEO in 1997 (not 1996).
