From the New York Times' Tripp Mickle the dramatic untold story inside Apple after the
passing of Steve Jobs by following his top lieutenants-Jony Ive the Chief Design Officer and
Tim Cook the COO-turned-CEO-and how the fading of the former and the rise of the latter led to
Apple losing its soul. Steve Jobs called Jony Ive his spiritual partner at Apple. The
London-born genius was the second-most powerful person at Apple and the creative force who most
embodies Jobs's spirit the man who designed the products adopted by hundreds of millions the
world over: the iPod iPad MacBook Air the iMac G3 and the iPhone. In the wake of his close
collaborator's death the chief designer wrestled with grief and initially threw himself into
his work designing the new Apple headquarters and the Watch before losing his motivation in a
company increasingly devoted more to margins than to inspiration. In many ways Cook was Ive's
opposite. The product of a small Alabama town he had risen through the ranks from the supply
side of the company. His gift was not the creation of new products. Instead he had invented
countless ways to maximize a margin squeezing some suppliers persuading others to build
factories the size of cities to churn out more units. He considered inventory evil. He knew how
to make subordinates sweat with withering questions. Jobs selected Cook as his successor and
Cook oversaw a period of tremendous revenue growth that has lifted Apple's valuation to $2
trillion. He built a commanding business in China and rapidly distinguished himself as a master
politician who could forge global alliances and send the world's stock market into freefall
with a single sentence. Author Tripp Mickle spoke with more than 200 current and former Apple
executives as well as figures key to this period of Apple's history including Trump
administration officials and fashion luminaries such as Anna Wintour while writing After Steve.
His research shows the company's success came at a cost. Apple lost its innovative spirit and
has not designed a new category of device in years. Ive's departure in 2019 marked a
culmination in Apple's shift from a company of innovation to one of operational excellence and
the price is a company that has lost its soul.
