Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc.

by Owen W. Linzmayer

Book Overview

Journalist Owen Linzmayer explores Apple's tumultuous history, from its legendary founding, through a series of disastrous executive decisions, to its recent return to profitability. Backed by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 188641128X
• ISBN13: 9781886411289
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: No Starch Press
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Apple Confidential - A Must Have

Owen Linzmayer's "Apple Confidential 2.0" book is a must have for people interested in the history, culture, people and technology behind Apple Computer Inc.This book (and Owen's previous Apple histories "The Mac Bathroom Reader" and "Apple Confidential [1.0]") has been meticously researched and uncovers many facts about Apple Computer, its people, and systems that other books don't come close to touching. Instead of rehashing comments from other books which tend to be inaccurate, Owen has spent a tremendous amount of time finding and verifying facts. Instead of just relying on a comment about some aspect of Apple Computer, Owen has taken the time and put forth the effort to communicate directly with those involved with the facts in question. This results in accurate facts, something that many technology computing books about Apple don't always have.I've been involved with Apple systems since the Apple ][ of the later 1970s and am constantly suprised by the information Owen has uncovered. At one time I thought I knew a lot about Apple's history, but Owen has proven me wrong in a beneficial way.The end result of Owen's work is an almost definitive book about a fascinating and quirky company that any Apple computer user must have in their book collection.I'm looking forward to the next Apple Confidential version if such a book will exist in the future.-David T Craig ( shirlgato AT cybermesa DOT com )

Gossip, History, Trivia, Legends & Lore

This book combines gossip, history, trivia and the legends & lore of one of America's most fascinating companies. The story starts with the two Steves making and selling boxes to confuse the phone system into granting free calls. It chronicals the development of Apple computer from the first Apple through the Lisa, endless varities of Macintosh and today's iPod. Throughout the story, the massive ups and collosal failures of this American instution are laid bare.The layout is interesting as well. As characters are introduced, the reader frequently wonders "What happened to them?" More often than not, the question is answered in a sidebar. This showed that Apple wasn't just a great product developer, but also a great developer of silicon valley talent.The book details the extremes of the players personalities:- How Jobs agreet to split the proceeds of an Atari deal with Woz, only to keep 90% of the income himself.- How Woz forced the company to go public early by sharing his stock with too many employees.- How Gasse talked folks out of liscencing the technology until it was too late.- How several successive CEOs tried in vain to save the company.The book also details some lesser known stories from Apple's storied past:- How the 1984 commercial almost never made it.- How the company decided to abandon Copland. ( & Why!)- How the company got sued by Carl Sagan, and how they dug their ditch a little deeper.There's a lot of "Hows" here, which really shows how deep the author gets into the company's history and soul. You come away with not just a knowledge of the people, but their personalities and why exactly things turned out the way they did.This book is excellent reading for anyone interested in the world of technology, and an absolute must for fans of Apple.

Apple Confidential 2.0

Apple Computer has always been a fascination for me. Ever since I heard of them, I thought they were a top-notch company, providing quality computers for the consumer with a lot of disposable cash. Computers in general were much more expensive when they first hit the market and Apple offered the first home machines. I've never owned a home computer until 2000. I remember doing so much research. As my wife is a photographer, Apple came to the front, with their reputation for excellent image handling. We decided to purchase an iMac. This purchase was followed with buying an iBook in 2001 for my wife.To this day, I continue to be amazed by our Macs and what we've been able to do and learn since we got them. Now, if only the budget had room for a loaded G5, I know where we would be headed.Shortly after our Mac came home, we found The NorthWest of Us, a Chicago area Macintosh User Group and joined up. There has been no better source of support for whatever troubles needed troubleshooting. Beside the support, I was struck with the passion of these people who used Mac computers and could not really understand the profound enthusiasm they had for their platform of choice. Simply, I felt that Macs were very efficient and quite easy to use and that's what we hoped for when we purchased ours. I was looking for something that would help me to understand a bit more about the mystique surrounding Apple Computer and it's products. I found Apple Confidential 2.0.This book covers the how's and why's of Apple's start up and the passion of the founders, especially Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. You can see the genius of them as they put everything they owned on the line to create the first personal computers-Woz for his passion to create and design, Steve for his desire for perfection and success. You can easily understand how their personalities first nurtured each other and how they would come to necessarily separate themselves from each other.Apple Confidential 2.0 gives you insight to many corporate business decisions, both amazing and really stupid. As I read, I found myself wondering how this company managed to survive at all. The book contains many time lines following the life cycles of the Apple I and II, the ill-fated Apple III and Lisa, the multitudinous computer variations offered for sale (my gosh, how confusing!) and the Mac OS. Yes, there's more, but these were the most interesting for me. I found the fumbling that went on within the company to be nothing if not infuriating, the misdirection, the false starts and, most of all, the loss of product quality and innovation. Lately, I often wondered why one of my coworkers hated Macs. After reading about the thousands of defective Macs put on the market instead of in the garbage heap, sure enough, it was one of those that she had to put up with and could not wait to dump! If I had been a Mac user then, I'm sure I'd be in her camp too.The business decisions made over the years at Apple can make your head sp

The Creator of the Macintosh's Opinion

Of all the books written on Apple's history, this one comes closest to accurately relating the story of how the Mac was created, and other early Apple events.I can't personally vouch for Linzmeyer's discussion of more recent history, because I left Apple a while ago, but having seen the results of his careful research where I personally took part in the events, and having seen the massive inaccuracies in many other books, I'd bet on his.Some other books are more exciting reads, but that's because they're partially fiction. Linzmeyer has done his homework. But don't get the impression that this book is dull; it's fun, with many interesting tidbits and historical photographs. This is the book to read if you are interested in fact rather than legend.

One of the best business books ever written

This is a must-have book for any fan of Apple. It's possibly the most thorough - yet still readable - history of the company. It mixes business facts, behind-the-scenes secrets, and pop culture tidbits beautifully. Along the way, you'll learn the ins and outs of other computer companies (Microsoft, IBM, AOL, NeXT, Power Computing, Xerox PARC, etc) and a lot about the history of the industry in general and the players in particular.Linzmayer is the author of "The Mac Bathroom Reader," and knows what he's talking about. Not only does "Apple Confindential" add more history that wasn't in that volume, but it's redesigned, updated to this year, and includes Steve Jobs' return and the iMac success.In a word, breathtaking: It has quotes from everyone involved, timelines, products lists, a history, a little opinion, analysis, stock info, classic pictures. It's all here.I'd write more, but I'm going to read it again. And I now know what to give other Apple fans for gifts.