Digital Wars: Apple, Google, Microsoft, and the Battle for the Internet

Arthur, a longtime tech editor (currently for the Guardian), relates an in-depth history of the worlds of Apple, Microsoft, and relative newcomer Google (founded in 1998%E2%80%94over 20 years after its titular forebears). The author focuses primarily on the personalities of the two big players%E2%80%94Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs%E2%80%94and positions Google inventors Larry Page and Sergey Brin as being at the helm of a different generation of digital entrepreneurs who "had come of age in a world where the Internet was already a background hum" and Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the World Wide Web) was a familiar name to folks in the know. Arthur traces the ups-and-downs of the companies over time and the cutthroat competition that persists today to create the next state of the art server, music device, smartphone, tablet, or something entirely new. He also maps the changing landscape of Internet companies and relates plenty of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, some of which do little to contradict the popular image of Steve Jobs as genius/tyrant. Lively and informative, even non-geeks will find this story riveting. (Apr.)