Chapter 16: Blind Spots, Grudges, and Sharp Elbows

This is an unusual chapter because rather than explain a sequence of events, we try to put into perspective certain of Steve Jobs’s more controversial characteristics and patterns of behavior, especially in the context of both Apple’s meteoric growth and success, and the pressures brought on by living with a terminal illness. Some of Jobs’s decisions and actions led to legal challenges in court and reprimands from federal regulators. Others resulted in nagging public relations problems. Still others were merely examples of a man who refused to sugar coat his opinions. We relied mainly upon court records and newspaper and magazine stories for the background of several of these debacles, and also asked Jobs’s closest work colleagues to reflect upon them. We don’t try to pass definitive judgment, especially on those legal cases that are ongoing. But we felt it was important to try to describe how these issues reflected aspects of Jobs’s personality and temperament at the peak of his success. We also describe some of the interpersonal dynamics of the executive team Jobs had assembled, and the period of transition in the mid-2000s when several key members left.

Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs over the years, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; Eddy Cue on April 29, 2014; Katie Cotton on April 30, 2014; Fred Anderson on August 8, 2012; Jon Rubinstein on July 25, 2012; Avie Tevanian on October 11, 2012; and Bill Gates on June 15, 2012.

Online sources quoted or consulted include a New York Times op-ed column “Talking Business: Apple’s Culture of Secrecy” by Joe Nocera, published on July 26, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/business/26nocera.html?pagewanted=all; the online press release archive of the Securities and Exchange Commission litigation archive for Release No. 20086 regarding the settlement of stock option dating issues, http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2007/lr20086.htm; the online archive of the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the antitrust complaint against Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar for conspiring to prevent competition for the hiring of technical employees, http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f262600/262654.pdf, and the complaint against Apple and several book publishers for conspiring to fix prices of ebooks, http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f299200/299275.pdf; “Thoughts on Flash,” an open letter from Steve Jobs explaining his reasoning for not allowing Adobe Corp.’s Flash media player software on the Apple iPhone, https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/; Apple Inc.’s archive of news releases for information about the company’s litigation against Samsung, which for many years was the leading maker of smartphones that used Google’s Android operating system; “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work,” by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher, published in the New York Times on January 21, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html; “In China, Human Costs Are Built into an iPad,” by Charles Duhigg and David Barboza, published in the New York Times on January 25, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html; “How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes,” by Charles Duhigg and David Kocieniewski, published in the New York Times on April 28, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html; “Apple’s Retail Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay,” by David Segal, published in the New York Times on June 23, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/apple-store-workers-loyal-but-short-on-pay.html.

We also consulted Vogelstein’s Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution for background information.

Chapter 17: “Just Tell Them I’m Being an Asshole”

This final chapter also covers a lot of ground, from my own interactions with Jobs over the last few years of his life, to the unusual circumstances surrounding his liver transplant in 2009, to the public criticism of working conditions at Apple’s contract manufacturer in China, to accusations of antitrust violations in its collusion with book publishers over electronic book prices and with other Silicon Valley employers to reduce “poaching” of key employees. We also describe how the iPad came to be Apple’s fastest-selling new product ever. The chapter’s primary intent, however, is to put in perspective the evolution of Steve Jobs from a reckless young entrepreneur into a seasoned builder of new consumer technologies and the businesses infrastructures required to deliver and support them. For this we draw largely upon the comments and experiences of many who knew him best.

Descriptions of the private burial service were provided to us by several individuals who were present but did not want their recollections attributed to them. The transcript of Laurene Powell Jobs’s tribute given at the public memorial for Steve Jobs on October 17, 2011, is used with her permission.

Aside from snippets from my own encounters with Jobs, most of the direct quotations in this chapter were drawn from interviews with Tim Cook on April 30, 2014; Bob Iger on May 14, 2014; Eddy Cue on April 29, 2014; Lee Clow on January 20, 2014; Bill Gates on June 15, 2012; Laurene Powell Jobs on April 30, 2014; John Lasseter on May 8, 2014; Jim Collins on April 15, 2014; and Mike Slade on July 23, 2012.

We relied on the Cupertino City Council video archive to obtain exact quotes from Jobs’s presentation of plans for a new Apple headquarters, June 7, 2011, http://www.cupertino.org/index.aspx?recordid=463&page=26; and upon Apple’s online video archives to obtain the comments by Bill Campbell and Jony Ive speaking at the memorial for Jobs at Apple Inc. headquarters, October 20, 2011, http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/10oiuhfvojb23/event/index.html.

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