Published by Bantam, £20
This year saw the tenth anniversary of the Apple iPhone's creation. Brian Merchant's book looks at the history of the device. The story is just as dull as that sounds in places, says Hugo Rifkind in The Times, but the rest is a fascinating "questing mission to understand the smartphone".
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
He interviews Apple employees and takes trips to factories and mines around the world in this quest, and as a result, his book manages to highlight the "utter disconnect" between "the clean, polo-necked Western geek world" of the iPhone and that of "the teeming chaos of China where the work is done".
If you've ever worked on a hopeless project that felt like it was going nowhere, you will "draw spiritual strength" from this account of life in the Apple trenches, says Lev Grossman in The New York Times. The book details all the "fascinating dead ends and might-have-beens", the personal sacrifices and obscure technical hurdles, and the backstage tension that surrounded the iPhone's development and launch.
But there's also a lot of filler in there. "It's curiously unilluminating to read a metallurgical analysis of a pulverised iPhone, or to watch Merchant trudge around the globe... in search of the raw materials Apple uses."Of more interest for most readers is the "remarkably negative picture" the book paints of Apple's fabled former chief executive, says Jacob Mikanowski in The Guardian. Steve Jobs is largely confined to the margins of this story, but comes across as "impatient, domineering, petty, ruthless, clueless, megalomaniacal and frequently wrong".
Indeed, "most of the early work on the iPhone was hidden from him, to keep him from killing the project". iPhone lovers owe a larger debt, says Merchant, to anonymous Apple staff and the "forgotten pioneers" who developed the technologies that it depended on than they do to Jobs.
-
Steve Webb: The triple lock is there to do a job. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of itThe triple lock means 13 million pensioners will now get an above-inflation state pension boost in April. While the rising cost of the policy has stirred controversy, Steve Webb, who served as pensions minister when it was introduced, argues the triple lock is vital and should stay. Webb speaks to Kalpana Fitzpatrick on the new episode of MoneyWeek Talks – out now.
-
How retirement pots risk running out 11 years early if inflation remains highPension savers could find their retirement income may not last as long as they anticipated over fears that inflation may not slow down
