The Slow Evolution of Apple's Online Store

Steve Jobs glanced at the sheet of paper with Apple's future on it and promptly flicked it away onto the table. Then he uttered one of his trademark criticisms to Eddy Cue, the manager who had handed it to him.

"This sucks," Jobs said.

The visionary founder had recently made his triumphant return to Apple, more than 11 years after he was fired from the company he started in his parents' garage. During his first months back in 1997, he singled out a few employees to help him spearhead new initiatives to turn the company around. Cue was one of these. He had been working as a customer service manager when Jobs returned and put him in charge of building up Apple's presence in a nascent but growing space: ecommerce. Read more...