While it lacked the winding queues and applause normally associated with an Apple launch, the release of Steve Jobs' authorized biography still made a splash.
It hit stores earlier than planned, as publishers Simon & Schuster moved to meet the wave of public interest in Jobs following his death. Before it was even unveiled, the book was a blockbuster.
"’Steve Jobs’ is currently our Number One best seller on both the Books and Kindle Best Seller lists," said an Amazon spokesperson. "The way things are trending, it could very likely be our top-selling book of the year."
At a book store in New York, the prospect of learning more about one of most enigmatic figures of recent times was enticing - even if not all is rose-tinted.
"He was a pretty conflicted personality himself shopper told "From what I've read he was very difficult to work for. And yet look at what he got from pushing his employees that way. It's the contradictions within him."
The sentiment is echoed by author Walter Isaacson, who told 60 Minutes Jobs could be "petulant and brittle." Isaacson was granted more than 40 interviews with the Apple co-founder as his hand-picked biographer.
Jobs’ wife told him not to "whitewash" his life and he exercised no control over the content of the book.
The sheer access to Jobs helps create as definitive a portrait as we are likely to get: His drive, genius and rivalry with other tech giants such as Microsoft and Google.
It also reveals other dimensions to his personality: Sensitivity to criticism over the iPad and regret over not getting cancer treatment earlier.
For Apple devotees and the wider public touched by his death, the book offers the chance to reconnect with the man who helped define our relationship with technology.
And that connection could mean more than just book sales: Sony snapped up the movie rights earlier this month.
CNN
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