Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution
The smartphone and tablet computer have revolutionized personal computing to such an extent that they have caused waves of disruptions across numerous industries, decimating sales of laptops and giving consumers more choices than ever to have TV, movies, and the Internet on their own terms. The PC platform wars of the 1990s between Apple and Microsoft Windows may mirror the current fight for dominance over the smartphone market between Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, but today the stakes are higher and the battle more personal, to the extent where the fight has become “one of the nastiest, longest, and most public business battles in a generation.” Vogelstein, a contributing editor for Wired magazine in San Francisco, dissects the boardroom meetings, technological hurdles, product unveilings, courtroom battles, backstabbing, temper tantrums, and even the effect that Steve Jobs’ illness and untimely death has had on the rapidly changing landscape of mobile computing as well as on Apple’s prospects going forward. He cuts through the technological jargon and relates a succinct and compelling story, leaving value judgments up to the reader. --David Siegfried