New biography: Steve Jobs vowed that Apple would never make a TV
The upcoming biography 'Becoming Steve Jobs' looks to set the record straight over what kind of person Apple's co-founder really was.
A screen shot of Steve Jobs at Apple September 2010 Music Event-The All New Apple TV Media Streamer event.
The Apple History Channel
Apple enthusiasts are scrambling to collect details about a new Steve Jobs biography that听听revealed Friday.
The biography is titled, 鈥楤ecoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader,鈥� and was authored by reporters Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, who both gained 鈥渋ncredible and sometimes exclusive access鈥� to those who were closest to the Apple co-founder.
The upcoming profile of Mr. Jobs will be released March 24 and is already Amazon's best-selling preorder within the category of Management books.
Walter Isaacson鈥檚 2011 bestseller 鈥�' was broadly considered to be a 鈥溾�� analysis of the life of the innovator, but Mr. Isaacson鈥檚 interpretation was not well accepted among those who say they knew Jobs best.听The Amazon description says that the authors spoke with a large variety of individuals including Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook,听Apple听head of design Jony Ive, head of Internet software Eddy Cue, Pixar president Ed Catmull, Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter, Disney CEO Robert Iger, and many others, who were able to share their true feelings about the previous biography.
鈥淚 thought the Isaacson book did [Jobs] a tremendous disservice," Mr. Cook told the authors, according to an excerpt captured by . "It was just a rehash of a bunch of stuff that had already been written, and focused on small parts of his personality. You get the feeling that [Jobs was] a greedy, selfish egomaniac. It didn鈥檛 capture the person. The person I read about there is somebody I would never have wanted to work with over all this time. Life鈥檚 too short.鈥�
That was not the only surprising fact that Cook revealed. As Jobs underwent cancer treatment, Cook discovered the two shared a rare blood type and offered Jobs part of his liver, which, the book says, Jobs adamantly refused. Here is an excerpt courtesy of Fast Company:
鈥淪omebody that鈥檚 selfish,鈥� Cook continues, 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 reply like that. I mean, here鈥檚 a guy, he鈥檚 dying, he鈥檚 very close to death because of his liver issue, and here鈥檚 someone healthy offering a way out. I said, 鈥楽teve, I鈥檓 perfectly healthy, I鈥檝e been checked out. Here鈥檚 the medical report. I can do this and I鈥檓 not putting myself at risk, I鈥檒l be fine.鈥� And he doesn鈥檛 think about it. It was not, 鈥楢re you sure you want to do this?鈥� It was not, 鈥業鈥檒l think about it.鈥� It was not, 鈥極h, the condition I鈥檓 in . . .鈥� It was, 鈥楴o, I鈥檓 not doing that!鈥� He kind of popped up in bed and said that. And this was during a time when things were just terrible. Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them.鈥�
The book also mentions Jobs鈥� aspirations to purchase Yahoo! in a joint venture with Mr. Iger from Disney.听There has been plenty of over the years about whether Apple would attempt to take over the search company, but this is one of the first solid confirmations that Jobs actually considered this acquisition.
The final preview involves Mr. Ive鈥檚 early designs at听Apple and Jobs' utter disdain for television.听
, Ive was a part of Jobs鈥� inner circle and was working away in the company's design lab. Ive created the , his version of the , and the , which he referred to as his "pride and joy at the time.鈥� Fast Company goes on to quote the book as saying:
鈥淚t was a striking piece of out-of-the-box industrial design thinking. Jony and his team had placed the guts of a top-of-the-line laptop inside a svelte and slightly curved vertical slab, which had on the top half of its surface a color LCD monitor, and on the bottom half a vertical CD-ROM drive, all of which was framed by specially designed Bose stereo speakers. It was packed with state-of-the-art technology, including cable and FM tuners and the circuitry necessary for the computer to double as a TV set or radio.鈥澨�
Jobs really liked Ive, referring to him in the beginning of their relationship as a "." And 鈥�,鈥� Ive liked him back. The mutual respect led Ive to stick with Apple instead of pursuing other career opportunities, but as Ive would soon learn, heartbreak would follow that decision:
Steve killed both of Jony鈥檚 pet projects. The eMate disappeared along with all other traces of the Newton (save a few key patents), and the 20th Anniversary bit the dust after selling just 12,000 units. The products didn鈥檛 fit into his quadrants. Besides, he told me one day, "I just don鈥檛 like television. Apple will never make a TV again." This was Jony鈥檚 introduction to Steve鈥檚 coldhearted decision-making.
will be unveiling a lot more information about the biography in its upcoming April issue.