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!

Worth a Listen

Interesting story, thoroughly reported- most salient point for me - the grandiose nature of Silicon Valley, the belief that your consumer product is “changing the world” when it is really just a way to have a successful company. Similarly - you must marvel at the superficiality of the design group, and their obsession with small details that are unimportant in the world, except maybe for the aesthetics of their private jets.

But the reporting and corporate information is solid and interesting. The narrator disappoints - very professional but sounds robotic, does not add to the production.

Incredibly interesting look at how Apple lost its soul

One of best books post Steve I’ve read on Apple. Apple is no longer an innovator, no longer a revolutionary. Apple today imitates Microsoft’s path under Gates and Balmer of evolutionary of a one hit cow that they keep milking. Nadella has changed the culture at Microsoft for good where Tim Cook has killed Apples soul that set it apart under Steve’s leadership.

I’ve worked selling Apple technologies and solutions since 1987 and have owned almost every one of their products. Tim Cook is the latest John Scully.

The book is well narrated and supported and the story telling is captivating. Well done

Wonderful Insight!

Being a tenured employee in a retail store it was wonderful to listen to the stories and full transparency. Great writing and kudos to the narrator!