Steve Jobs Biography Sells 379,000 Copies in A Week in U.S.

KOMPAS.com - The biography of the late Apple founder Steve Jobs has sold 379,000 copies in the United States in its first week.

The book, called simply 'Steve Jobs', is the only authorised biography of the former Apple CEO, who died just under one month ago after a long battle with cancer.

Written by former managing editor of Time magazine, Walter Isaacson, the book outsold the second most popular book in the U.S. by more than three copies to one.

The biography's huge sales have already made it the 18th bestselling book of the year after just six days. Experts have predicted the book is likely to make the top ten bestselling books of the year by the end of 2011.

Aswell as outselling the week's second most popular book by three to one, 'Steve Jobs' outsold the second bestselling non-fiction book of the week by eight to one.

The book also scored the biggest week of sales for any book in the U.S. since last November, according to data from Nielsen BookScan via thebookseller.com.

Author Walter Isaacson was given authorisation to write the book after Jobs gave his full cooperation to the project in his final days.

A no-holds-barred account, Steve Jobs' biography is notable for the Apple founder's scathing criticism of Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman and his longtime business rival.

Jobs told the author in one of the many interviews he granted him before his death: 'Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he's more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology.

'He just shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas.

'He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.'

Despite being slammed by the Apple founder, the Microsoft giant has refused to return the criticism, saying that 'none of it bothers him at all'.

On its first day of public availability, Amazon.com, the world' s largest online retailer, said the book is on pace to outsell every other book sold by the company and may become the top selling book of 2011.