Becoming Steve Jobs releases on iBooks Store, Kindle and Amazon.com

Becoming Steve Jobs book cover

Becoming Steve Jobs, a highly anticipated Apple-endorsed biography of Apple’s mercurial co-founder and late CEO Steve Jobs, on Tuesday released on the iBooks Store, the Kindle Store and on Amazon.com.

Written by veteran Wall Street Journal and Fortune reporter Brent Schlender, who is 58 years old, and Rick Tetzeli, Executive Editor with Fast Company, the 464-page book published by The Crown Publishing Group offers new details of Jobs’ personal and professional life that did not quite get the treatment in Walter Isaacson’s biography that such a high-profile iconic figure in technology, media and arts deserves.

Speaking to The New York Times to celebrate the book’s launch, authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, who interviewed Apple CEO Tim Cook, designed head Jony Ive and other high-profile executives, underscored that Steve did not see nurture transactional relationship with them like he used to with other journalists.

It was a special experience to take my two daughters over to his house to watch an early cut of “Toy Story,” and it was memorable that he came to visit me twice while I was in the intensive care unit at Stanford Medical Center in 2005.

Schlender and Tetzeli said their book doesn’t speculate about Apple beyond Steve’s passing. Instead, they focused on explaining why he was so much more effective by the end of his life than he was when he was a young entrepreneur.

Fast Company published several juicy excerpts and whole passages ahead of the book’s release, with Apple itself yesterday offering a sneak peek into the book’s prologue and first chapter.

“Apple doesn’t have another Steve to act as its public pitchman,” said co-authors of the book. “Nobody does. He was a singular talent in that regard.”

“Becoming Steve Jobs” is available for $12.99 on the iBooks Store, $11.99 on the Kindle Store or as a $19.83 hardback edition through Amazon.com.

I know what I’ll be reading this weekend.

Will you be buying this bio book?