New E-Book "Letters To Steve" Discusses Jobs' Emails to Apple Customers

[Akshay Masand]

Known for personal correspondence with customers, Steve Jobs and his concise emails seem to be the subject of a new e-book. Mark Milian (who covers consumer technology for CNN) recently published his first book: “Letters to Steve: Inside the E-mail Inbox of Apple’s Steve Jobs.” The title is available for $2.99 on the Amazon Kindle platform.

The book is 67 pages long and Milian ended up reviewing more than 100 emails allegedly sent by Jobs, including some which were never-before-published notes that were shared exclusively for the title. It even features interviews with some of the customers and fans that Jobs communicated with frequently. The official synopsis reads the following:
“Over the years, people discovered the e-mail address of Jobs and took to regularly sending him messages. That he often responded was as unusual as his leadership style and his processes for crafting hit products.”

What makes the book extra interesting are some of the conversations included in it. Among the conversations which were exchanges between Jobs and Brian Lam, former editor of Gizmodo. Ironically, the two had a friendly relationship with one another, where jobs even provided his thoughts on an early redesign of the website. Things seemed to have turned sour between the two when Gizmodo obtained a prototype of the iPhone 4 before it was announced.

With Jobs in charge, his emails were an occasional source of news from Apple , which was (and still is) largely a secretive company. He even used responses to help make decisions for the company, an example being Apple’s Xserve line of rack mounted servers which were discontinued when notified that “hardly anyone” was buying them. The book even includes a few exchanges Cook has had with customers since he took over Apple in August, a tradition which has been carried out since the time of Jobs’ death.

The book definitely seems like an interesting read. Are any of you planning on picking this e-book up? Share any thoughts and opinions below!

Source: Amazon

[Krississ]

i emailed tim cook a few months ago complaining about my 1 year old power adapter for my macbook pro actually tore apart under light use and that i am one unhappy customer. Don't know what happened but some high up local lady ended up calling me about the matter (guess they got my number from my apple ID?), so i'm not sure if tim checks the email or if it's a secretary that handled my email :S

[trentmorris]

i emailed tim cook a few months ago complaining about my 1 year old power adapter for my macbook pro actually tore apart under light use and that i am one unhappy customer. Don't know what happened but some high up local lady ended up calling me about the matter (guess they got my number from my apple ID?), so i'm not sure if tim checks the email or if it's a secretary that handled my email :S

Sounds like an issue you wouldn't need to bother the CEO with..? Maybe just a trip to the Genius bar would've sufficed.