Non Fiction Book Reviews #49

APPLE:

THE INSIDE STORY OF INTRIGUE, EGOMANIA, AND BUSINESS BLUNDERS

by Jim Carlton

Apple Computer was founded as a garage start-up by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. The company launched the personal computer revolution in 1978 with the first all-purpose PC, the Apple II. Then came the Macintosh computer in 1984, that was so easy to use, made desk-top-publishing a reality, and had a ten-year jump on the industry. But then something went very wrong at Apple and soon the company that brought about the personal computer revolution and a computer that was "insanely great" today tentatively clings to a mere 3.7 percent share of the market that it helped to create. Jim Carlton has written the most detailed study to date of the past decade of Apple's history. He portrays a company that designed computers for "the rest of us," ad what might of been and what really happened to the computer company that changed the world. It all began with two young men, one a born salesman and one a born engineer. Together they made magic with the Apple II, but when IBM entered the PC market Apple had completion. After a trip to Xerox PARC Jobs and company came back to Apple with a new computing system. At first the system failed because the Lisa, as it was called, was way over-priced. but Apple got it right when the first Macintosh was introduced and was an astounding success. At that time a bitter internal struggle between the ones that backed the Apple II and the ones who backed the Macintosh started to pull the company apart. Then internal debates within management set Apple on a devastating course of lost opportunities. Unable to license out the Macintosh Operating System, unable to offer lower priced Macs, unable to reward people for the work they had done, unable to reign in cost, and unable to keep a permanent CEO first starting with Steve Jobs, then John Sculley, to Michael Spindler, and now back to Steve Jobs. After the failure to support the clone makers, providing PCs', unable to keep up with demand, and unable to compete with Bill Gates has left Apple in a vulnerable state. What is the future of Apple? In this book Jim Carlton captures the culture of Apple and of Silicon Valley and how it all went wrong. A fascinating and troubling account of a company that had so much promise and threw it all away.

MICROSOFT SECRETS:

HOW THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL SOFTWARE COMPANY CREATES TECHNOLOGY, SHAPES MARKETS, AND MANAGES PEOPLE

by Michael A. Cusumano & Richard W. Selby

Microsoft is the dominate software company by owning the operating systems and basic applications programs that run on the majority of the world's computers. Much of the success is owed to the unquestioned genius and vision of Bill Gates, but created is also due to the hard work of the employees of Microsoft and their dedication. the authors, eminent scientists, have spent two years of on site observation at Microsoft headquarters to uncover the strategies that characterize exactly how Microsoft competes and operates. Microsoft follows a strategy of finding the smartest people who know the technology and the business, from the CEO to the managers to the employees. In companies where technology is central to their business, it is necessary to manage creative people with technical skills and empower people in their specialties. Microsoft also follows the strategy of entering evolving mass markets with products, push volume sales and exclusive contracts to ensure that Microsoft products become and remain industry standards. Then incrementally improve new products to make old products obsolete. Define products and development processes that supports its competitive strategy. Microsoft tries to work quickly and deliver lots of products and features at low prices to a broad variety of customers. Through continuous self-critiquing, feedback, and sharing Microsoft learns from past and present projects and products to improve the company and future projects. And finally: Attack the future. Study how products, markets, and technologies seem to be evolving and integrate products so that to use one product others products must be used also. Microsoft Secrets tell how Microsoft and its leader organizes, competes, and wins, and will continue to do so.

INSIDE INTEL:

ANDY GROVE AND THE RISE OF THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL CHIP COMPANY

by Jim Jackson

What makes Intel and Andy Grove tick? In many ways the same thing. Intel Corporation was created in 1968 by two founders that were middle-aged, prosperous, and leading figures in the computer industry. Robert Noyce, aged forty, had been the general manager of Fairchild Semiconductor and was one of the creators of the integrated circuit. He was also a boy scout and received his Ph.D. from M.I.T.. Gordon Moore was the head of research and development of Fairchild, the winner of numerous important patents and received his Ph.D. from Caltech. Before starting Intel they had been part of start-ups Shockley Laboratories and then Fairchild, but decided to start their own computer company. After founding the company Moore and Noyce hired Andy Grove as Director of Operations. Born in Hungry in 1936 as Andras Graf he came to the United States in 1956, by 1963 he had received his Ph.D., got a job at Fairchild Semiconductor in the R&D department and lectured at UC Berkeley. The ultimate details guy, Grove was perfect to propel Intel to the successes it would achieve. Intel rose to dominance through technological innovation, aggressive marketing, tough business tactics, and the liberal use of legal firepower. Intel uses the threat of lawsuits and a team of private investigators against their employees to keep them from going astray as well as to head off outside attempts to discover its secrets. as evidenced by Intel's seven year battle with AMD, a rival chip manufacturer, that at one point threatened to divide the entire computer industry. This book is also the story of Andrew Grove whose unpopular and controversial decisions have kept Intel at the top of the chip market. A good, behind-the-scenes look at the computer industry and its effect on peoples' lives. Do read!

GOING PUBLIC:

MIPS COMPUTER AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL DREAM

by Michael S. Malone

This is the behind-the-scenes, blow-by-blow drama of a company's initial public offering, or IPO. "Going public" is the pivotal moment when a company makes its first public sell of stock. Part of the magic are hot start-up firms catapulted into the headlines with stories of share holding staff members reaping millions, and executives becoming business legends overnight. The company is MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., one of Silicon Valley's most innovative firms and the first technology company to go public in the nineties. The story of individuals putting in one-hundred-hour work weeks and constantly forcing down risk with entrepreneurs battling to keep the company going while running the gauntlet of investors, stock analysts, underwriters, and the SEC. The story of a young electronics firm attempting to develop a pioneering technology and to achieve capital investment necessary for future growth. Given full access to the company's records and staff, and personalities of such people as MIPS's veteran CEO, Robert Miller, it quick-thinking attorney, Bob Latta, to Connie Nga Dang, an immigrant assembly-line worker who dreams of rescuing her husband from Vietnam. A look at a company that is trying to fulfill the new American Dream in this age of high-tech companies.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOD AND LARRY ELLISON:

INSIDE ORACLE CORPORATION

by Mike Wilson

Lawrence Joseph Ellison was born on August 17, 1944, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His mother was nineteen years old and unmarried, his father was nowhere to be found. When Larry was nine months old he got pneumonia and almost died. Unable to take care of the baby, Larry was sent to live with his aunt and uncle Lillian and Louis Ellison who adopted him and gave him their name, at age twelve Larry learned that he was adopted. Larry grew up in the affluent North Side of Chicago and after graduating from high school he enrolled in the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, but left the university in his sophomore year. He later enrolled in the University of Chicago which went nowhere and in the summer of 1966 he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and go a job as a programmer. Over the next few years he did computer related work for a series of big corporations as a systems programmer. In 1973 Larry Ellison began working at Ampex, an audio and video equipment company that was working on a way to store a terabit of data using videotape. There Larry met Bob Miner and began a collaboration that would become the longest-lasting and the most lucrative in the history of Silicon Valley. In 1977 with Bob Minor and Ed Oates, the three programmers found a software contracting company. Called System Development Corporation it started with a twelve hundred dollar investment that doubled its sales in eleven of its first twelve years. SDC filled a niche for companies that needed software that was compatible with all their computers. A success, SDC got a new name, Relational Software Inc., and then Oracle. Oracle software is everywhere from ATMs to airline reservations to data bases and government agencies. Although unsuccessful in his bid for Apple computer, he is now on Apple's board, his next vision is the network computer. A look at a man who fermented the computer revolution in the office who sees no end for his successes. A fascinating look at a man who is out to change the world, and make money at it!

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