Insanely Simple: The Obsession that Drives Apple's Success

Is this book a biography, a memoir, or a business book? Perhaps it could even go into self-help. The author is an advertising guy who had worked for a number of tech accounts, including Apple. He is proud of the work on Apple (and even claims to have helped name the 'iMac' which led to i-everything.) There is discussion about advertising campaigns that succeeded as well as those that failed miserably. (There were both for the iPod). There is also plenty of discussion of Steve Jobs and how is personality would be very direct and abrasive, but would take feedback to get things best.

Apple is compared to Intel. The later had an attention to detail and strived to be defect free. They would seek the perfect advertising campaign, with many committees formed to achieve it. Apple would let people run with it, and try to hope the lawyers could work out any problems. Some campaigns would fail, but that is part of the came.

Underneath all of this attention to Apple is the discussion of simplicity. Making things simple is hard. It is easier to write verbosely with sesquipedalians than to be short and concise. Adding many different products to catch different markets seems like the easy way out. However, it can confuse customers and lead to internal turmoil. Sometimes sacrificing short term revenue in the name of simplicity can be beneficial in the long term. Apple has become one of the most valuable companies on the planet. How much has the quest for simplicity contributed to that?