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Not bad for a hippie dropout Creator of the Macintosh and the iPod, Apple is a pivotal US company. Its leader is a tantalisingly elusive figure, well captured by Leander Kahney, says Steve Moore Inside Steve's Brain: Business lessons from Steve Jobs, the man who saved Apple Leander Kahney Atlantic Books, £8.99
The Mac is 2 5 years old this year. Steve Jobs did well in the '80s and '90s (at Pixar and Apple) and in recent years he has completely changed the media landscape, turning his also-ran computer company into the largest music retailer in the US. Is he the first great business leader of the 2 1 st century?
Inside Steve's Brain is neither biography nor management manual. It tells howjobs co-founded Apple, left it in high dudgeon, and then returned prodigal son-style to transform it into today's most successful consumer electronics firm.
At the same time, he built two wildly profitable new businesses (the iTunes/iPod/iPhone ecosystem and their retail operation). And, oh yeah, he also runs Pixar, which transformed animation with Toy Story. Pixar was recently bought by Disney, making Jobs Disney's largest shareholder. Not bad for a hippie dropout.
Author Leander Kahney is managing editor of Wired News. A long-time Mac fanatic, he knows Jobs better than...