Apple Says Upcoming Biography Tells the Story of the “Steve We Knew”

Apple is heavily promoting the forthcoming book Becoming Steve Jobs: offering a free peek, and execs such as Eddy Cue singing its praises on Twitter (earlier last week Cue tweeted that the book is “well done and first to get it right”) (via The New York Times).

Interestingly, the book also offered criticism about Walter Isaacson’s earlier authorised Steve Jobs biography. The book was launched in fall 2011, though that time Apple execs had remained silent as to their opinion.

Fast forward to 2015, and now we hear Tim Cook saying the Isaacson biography did Jobs a “tremendous disservice”. Even Apple’s design chief, Jony Ive, said in a New Yorker interview that “My regard couldn’t be any lower” for the book, albeit adding that he had only read parts of it.

Winning Apple over for the forthcoming book was a major coup for the authors:

Apple’s cooperation wasn’t easily won, Mr. Schlender and Mr. Tetzeli said in an email interview. When the veteran tech journalists first approached the company about the book in 2012, both were told executives would not give any interviews. Apple changed its mind 18 months later, they said.

Becoming Steve Jobs perfectly encapsulates the image of the Steve Jobs Apple would want us to remember, the company spokesman believes:

“After a long period of reflection following Steve’s death, we felt a sense of responsibility to say more about the Steve we knew,” Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said. “We decided to participate in Brent and Rick’s book because of Brent’s long relationship with Steve, which gave him a unique perspective on Steve’s life. The book captures Steve better than anything else we’ve seen, and we are happy we decided to participate.”

The book will be available to purchase on March 24. Given the marketing buzz around it — with huge assistance from Apple — the publisher, Crown Publishing Group, more than doubled the original print orders from the original 40,000 to 85,000 copies.