ICon

For the religious artwork, see Icon. For other uses, see Icon (disambiguation).

iCon

Author	Jeffrey S. Young William L. Simon[1][2]
Publisher	Wiley
Publication date	2005
Publication place	United States
Pages	368
ISBN	0-471-72083-6 [3][4] 2nd ed. ISBN 0-471-78784-1[1][5]

iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business is an unauthorized biography by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon about the return of Steve Jobs to Apple Inc. in 1997. It was published in 2005.^[6]

The book's title is a pun with one connotation that of Jobs as an icon with attributes to be admired, while carrying the negative interpretation as I-(am a)-Con, as in a con man, criticized for charisma used in harmful ways such as the "reality distortion field". The non-capitalized "i" at the beginning is also in reference to many of Apple's products, such as the iPhone, iMac, iPod, and iTunes.

It is the followup to Young's 1988 biography, Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward.^[7]

Criticism

In an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, Alan Deutschman criticizes iCon, pointing out the similarity of the book's content to his own previous biography of Steve Jobs, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs.^[8]

As retribution for publishing this unauthorized biography, Jobs banned all publications from publisher John Wiley & Sons from Apple retail stores.^[9][10] However, in its 2010 annual earnings report, Wiley said it had "closed a deal ... to make its titles available for the iPad."^[11]

References

1. Young, Jeffrey S.; Simon, William L. (April 14, 2006). iCon: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business rk. Wiley. ISBN 9780471787846. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
2. "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second ACT in the History of Business (Updated) - Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Simon. 0471787841". Boone Bridge Books. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
3. "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second ACT in the History of Business - Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Simon. 0471720836". Boone Bridge Books. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved May 21, 2008.
4. Arone, Todd (August 25, 2008). "Book Review: "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business"". Mac History. Christoph Dernbach. Retrieved August 15, 2017.
5. "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second ACT in the History of Business (Updated) - Jeffrey S. Young, William L. Simon. 0471787841". Boone Bridge Books. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
6. "Wiley: ICon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business". Archived from the original on November 5, 2011. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
7. Young, Jeffrey S. (1987). Steve Jobs: the Journey Is the Reward. Scott Foresman. p. 440. ISBN 0-6731-8864-7.
8. The tight fist clenched around Apple, a review by Alan Deutschman for San Francisco Chronicle (published May 22, 2005)
9. Steve Jobs's Review of His Biography: Ban It at the New York Times
10. Book giant feels wrath of Jobs at The Register
11. Weinman, Sarah (June 17, 2010). "Education Publisher John Wiley & Sons Closes Fiscal Year on a Strong Note". DailyFinance. AOL. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2010.