Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater: Jobs v. Wiley
You won't find a copy of Mac OS X Tiger For Dummies on the shelf in your local Apple store this week. Or a copy of the Mac OS X Bible, Tiger Edition. In fact, you won't find any titles from the Wiley & Sons publshing catalog in any Apple store, anywhere for what may be a very long time.As punishment for refusing to halt publication of a new unauthorized biography, Steve Jobs has ordered that Wiley pubs be banned from Apple retail outlets.
According to SiliconAlley.com, "'The books disappeared from Apple stores last week after a month of
increasingly contentious discussions about publication of the book,
``iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of
Business,''' said author Jeffrey S. Young. The book, co-written with
William L. Simon, offers an unflinching account of the rise, fall and
rebirth of one of Silicon Valley's most charismatic figures."
Given Apple's recent contentious, although not innapropriate IMHO, acts against the press, this pill is going to be pretty hard to swallow for swarms of Apple fans.
Apple has declined to comment on Young's book or on whether the company has removed Wiley publications from its stores, but a spokesman did confirm that "an Apple executive was provided with an advance copy of the book."
Co-author Jeffrey Young says the book is an update of a Jobs biography he wrote 20 years ago, called "The Journey Is the Reward.''
"One of the things I'm amused by, the original book was quite negative. It leaves you the impression of this young guy who was quite a jerk, has no social graces, has a lot of skill but may not be worthy of acclaim,'' said Young. The new book reflects a matured Jobs. ``I really think he learned a lot when he failed.''
Now this may surprise you - but I side with Wiley on this one. Steve Jobs is his own worst enemy at times and this stunt will probably only serve to boost sales of all Wiley's books. I know I've pre-ordered my copy and plan to pick up a few more as stocking stuffers!
Given Apple's recent contentious, although not innapropriate IMHO, acts against the press, this pill is going to be pretty hard to swallow for swarms of Apple fans.
Apple has declined to comment on Young's book or on whether the company has removed Wiley publications from its stores, but a spokesman did confirm that "an Apple executive was provided with an advance copy of the book."
Co-author Jeffrey Young says the book is an update of a Jobs biography he wrote 20 years ago, called "The Journey Is the Reward.''
"One of the things I'm amused by, the original book was quite negative. It leaves you the impression of this young guy who was quite a jerk, has no social graces, has a lot of skill but may not be worthy of acclaim,'' said Young. The new book reflects a matured Jobs. ``I really think he learned a lot when he failed.''
Now this may surprise you - but I side with Wiley on this one. Steve Jobs is his own worst enemy at times and this stunt will probably only serve to boost sales of all Wiley's books. I know I've pre-ordered my copy and plan to pick up a few more as stocking stuffers!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
agoni__ _ said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
check the new powermac specs on the apple site. dual layer dvd burning!!!
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Jack Beckman said 12:47AM on 7-09-2005
Laurie,
I agree too. the proper response was not to carry just this book (which probably wouldn't have been anyway, being non-technical). All this has done is drum up a lot of interest in the book.
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Tyler said 2:42AM on 9-09-2005
Um... Okay, that doesn't really have anything to do with this article. Anyway, is that "iCon" as in "I con [people into overcharging]" or as in Jobs is an icon for a company? It's one of those double-entendre things. I wonder if the book has any juicy stuff in it.
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PXLated said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
I agree with Tyler...the title probably did it in :-)
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Laurie said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
I'm quite sure the title was left ambiguous intentionally.
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C.K. Sample, III said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Laurie, I just have to point out that this behaviour that you side against in this case is the same general knee jerk response behind the current Apple lawsuits you support, only instead of Trade Secrets, this case covers Steve Secrets. Ooooooooh!
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Dogzilla said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Welp, when I originally read about this, it struck me as strange that Apple would be so reactionary. There have been plenty of articles and books published depicting Jobs as an absolute asshole with no comment from Apple, and I couldn't understand what was different about this one. Jobs generally doesn't care about this stuff so much. So it seemed to me that Apple was overreacting on this.
Having seen the front cover, I can understand. I thought the title was "Icon: Steve Jobs..", but the graphic treatment on the front cover implies that Jobs is a con artist. If the book was about me and had that title, I'd be pretty pissed. I wonder how much of the "negotiations" were about a simple redesign of the front cover that Wiley refused to do because they realized a) that specific implication would guarantee controversy and free publicity and b) sales with those who knee-jerk hate Apple.
After learning more, this actually seems like a pretty sleazy move by Wiley. Worst part is, they can probably sneak this sleaze move under the radar with it while trumpeting free speech. Lame and weak - just for that, I'm not buying anymore of David Pogue or Andy Ihnatko's books published by Wiley.
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Dogzilla said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Forgot to add - given that many of Apple's product names begin with a lowercase "i" (iPod, iMac, iSight) you can easily understand why many people would read that title as implying "Con artist". I just did a quick check here at the office and all four people I asked read it that way when I showed them a pic of the book cover.
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Anna said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
I personally don't like what Apple is doing, either, regarding pulling out the titles from Wylie. I think it's a tad childish and immature.
In a sense they're just practicing their right to not associate with companies they dislike or disagree with. Much like I refuse to buy Microsoft products because I dislike Bill Gates, even though the Office for Mac products are really not too bad.
I just wish Apple will remember that it's actions are more far-reaching than an ordinary individual's. It's a big, influential company that can't act in knee-jerk like fashion like this. In a way, it is very irresponsible for the company to do what it did, and this action is not good for the company's image. I wish they would stop conflating what's good for Steve Jobs with what's good for the company.
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Michael Cohen said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Dogzilla wrote "just for that, I'm not buying anymore of David Pogue or Andy Ihnatko's books published by Wiley."
Dogzilla, you should know that Andy had nothing to do with the Jobs book, its title, or anything else having to do with it: that book was prepared and marketed by an entirely different group at Wiley (which is a big publisher with many different imprints). So, why are you punishing Andy? Or me, for that matter: I just finished co-writing an Ihnatko series book about Xcode 2, which comes out this month, and I can assure you that I had nothing to do with the Jobs biography either! I first heard about it two days ago.
Oh, and, as for David Pogue's books, I believe the Pogue Press books are published by O'Reilly, not Wiley (the names rhyme, but that's their sole connection).
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shaitan said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
I don't figure it's quite fair to comment without hearing both sides! How do we know it' has anything to do with this book? Has it been confirmed? Besides no one would question a book advocating satanism be displayed by a religious book store.
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Van said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Wow. What a nexus of weirdness. I mean, Anna, you don't like Bill Gates, as in personally. Do you know him, personally? Or you don't like his business practices? There's a difference; after all, he does donate enormous sums to charity, too.
Or, Dogzilla, you're going to boycott books written by people who had zilch to do with writing a book that you haven't read but have a sneaking feeling might have a few negative things to say about the billionaire CEO of a company you like?
But to get to Laurie's point, this *is* the same kind of behavior that ended up getting Steve-O bumped from Apple back in the 80's. And for C.K. Sample, yes, it's quite easy to side with Apple on file-sharing and product leaks and still see Wiley as a wronged party. It's called "thinking."
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Dogzilla said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Hey, I like Andy and all, but he's offered public support for Willey (sorry for the previous misspelling), and I personally find what Willey's doing offensive. I'm not calling for a public boycott or anything, just making a personal decision.
As for David, my bad - I thought some of his books were published by Willey. Basically, it's a Willey thing, not an Ihnatko or Pogue thing.
As for it being a different division - doesn't wash. You could easily say that this decision was made by the Apple Stores and so why should that reflect badly on Apple as a whole. Corporate is as corporate does.
Sorry about not buying your book - if you put a PDF online I'll buy it from you directly.
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jake said 3:32PM on 8-03-2005
iCon as in i-con as in con man, definitely is the inteneded meaning (along with icon) and I can see why Jobs is pissed off. I would say Jobs is a lot of things but I don't see any signs of him being a con man. Even if they do have nice things to say about him inside, as the author has stated, it is a little hard to get past the cover. Wiley is getting just what they wanted though, controversy, which almost always spurs sales, so it was probably a risk they wanted to take but they should not be surprised by Jobs' reaction.
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Steve M said 4:17PM on 6-16-2005
Certainly within Apple's rights to determine who they will and won't do business with, and how they make that decision is up to them as well. Folks need to take a step back and remember the stores DO belong to Apple. If you want to buy Wiley books, just go somewhere else.
Here's the thing, the same stubborn streak that makes Jobs act this way is what has made him buck the Wintel stream and build the computers we all love. If he was a compromiser, we would never have had the Mac to begin with.
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