Steve Jobs biography sells out in China


27 Oct 2011

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson’s authorised biography of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs sold out in China within a day of its release.

Thirty-five editions of Steve Jobs were released on 24 October, and all 250,000 Chinese edition copies of the book were sold or ordered within a day of its release.

The book was being sold in 21 cities in China. People stood in a queue for hours at Shanghai’s largest bookstore, with the entire stock of 1,000 books, priced at 68 yuan (US$10.70) each, selling out by midday on Monday, the China Daily newspaper reported.

Commonwealth Publishing Group has said the book is currently out of stock, but 30,000 new prints of the book would be issued every day to meet market demand. As well, an e-book version of the biography is to be released early next year, the China Post reported.

For the book, Isaacson conducted 40 interviews with Jobs. The author also spoke with more than 100 of Jobs’ family members, friends, colleagues and business rivals.

Steve Jobs was initially scheduled for an early 2012 release, but its publication date was pushed up to November and then to 24 October following Jobs’ death on 5 October.