Alan Deutschman is the author of many best selling books including The Second Coming of Steve Jobs. In his interview for "The Motley Fool" he shares the hurdles he had to cross to publish his book about Steve Jobs. Excerpts
Deutschman: That's right. Not only did Steve Jobs refuse to cooperate with the book, but he blocked a number of sources from cooperating and then about a month before the book's scheduled publication, he telephoned the chief executive officer of Random House and tried unsuccessfully to have the book killed. Jobs also bought the rights to the photographs that my publisher was trying to license to use on the dust jacket cover, preventing us from using that photograph, even though it was a very appealing photograph of him, and forcing us to scrap the dust jacket and design and print a new one at considerable expense. Jobs really went out of his way to try to prevent and then frustrate the publication of my book, which was an independent book by a journalist doing a lot of reporting, who was going to have an independent voice.
Arrogance is a weakness. His obsession with control, which we have seen in the, most recently in the so-called jailbreak issue about whether consumers can basically hack their iPhones to use their own software that hasn't been approved by Steve Jobs. The man is an incredible control freak. That has had a big upside -- putting his passion into making great products and harnessing the creativity of other brilliant people and having this passion for perfection -- but it also has a downside. And I think where Apple is vulnerable now is Jobs is once again trying to control every aspect of his products. With the iPhone, it has led to incredible early success where they have been able to design the hardware, the software, approve the Apps, completely orchestrate the entire experience for users and do a wonderful job with it. But it leaves Apple vulnerable to open approaches of, for example, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) with its Android operating system for mobile devices. You kind of wonder whether, as in the personal computer industry years ago, whether Jobs' desire to control everything is leaving him vulnerable to other people who are giving up control, who are putting out their technologies for other people to adapt and modify and potentially creating a much bigger market for less expensive products.
Does anyone truly believe we should all encourage his bad behavior? Please vote with our wallet.
