他很年轻（才43岁）。习惯了抛头露面【早在高中时，就参演过音乐剧《理发师陶德》（Sweeney Todd）】。他技术背景扎实【毕业于斯坦福（Stanford），曾在NeXT公司任职】。拥有和史蒂夫•乔布斯一样明察秋毫的特性（在办公室里放了一个珠宝放大镜以便检查显示屏上每个图标的每个像素）。他领导的移动软件部贡献了苹果（Apple）近70%的营收。

    一位企业家对亚当•拉辛斯基称：“他是一位个性鲜明、脚踏实地而又富有天分的工程师，同时也是一位非常出色的演说者。他是一个全才。”

    拉辛斯基在其新作《苹果解密：美国最受赞赏、最神秘的公司运营内幕》（Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired -- and Secretive -- Company Really Works）中表示，高级副总裁斯科特•福斯特从苹果众多高管中脱颖而出，最有可能继承史蒂夫•乔布斯的衣钵，在蒂姆•库克之后接任苹果首席执行官。

    如果……

    拉辛斯基写道：“如果说福斯特有什么缺陷的话，就是他不同于其它苹果高管，表现得有些过于野心勃勃。这些年来，他公开地扩大自己影响力。据小道消息称，就连乔布斯病休期间，他也不忘偷偷摸摸积攒实力。”

    拉辛斯基对福斯特的描述很可能会被苹果公司里里外外的人士仔细拜读。《苹果解密》将于下周出版，是继沃尔特•艾萨克森的《史蒂夫•乔布斯传》（Steve Jobs）后最重要的苹果论著。无论从哪方面，它都是乔布斯自传的最佳姊妹篇。如果是艾萨克森的书是苹果故事的《时代杂志》（Time Magazine）或《人物周刊》（People Weekly）版本，那么拉辛斯基带来的则是他效力的杂志——《财富》（Fortune）版本。

    拉辛斯基的目标是从商业的角度来解剖乔布斯一手打造的公司。不过和伊萨克森不同，他并没有得到乔布斯的协助。苹果公司也没有安排任何高管或者员工来配合他的工作。就像战地记者从战争地带发回的难民报告一样，拉辛斯基采访了一大批苹果公司的合作伙伴、竞争对手以及从戒备森严的库比蒂诺离开的员工。

    He's young (43). Comfortable on stage (played Sweeney Todd in high school). Has serious nerd credentials (Stanford, NeXT). Shares Steve Jobs' obsession with detail (keeps a jeweler's loupe in his office to check every pixel on every icon). And the division he heads -- mobile software -- drives nearly 70% of Apple's (AAPL) income.

    "He's a sharp, down-to-earth, and talented engineer, and a more-than-decent presenter," one entrepreneur told Adam Lashinsky. "He's the total package."

    According to Lashinsky's new book Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired -- and Secretive -- Company Really Works, senior vice president Scott Forstall stands out among the rest of Apple's executive team as the most likely to succeed Steve Jobs once the Tim Cook era is over.

    If ...

    "If there's a knock on Forstall," writes Lashinsky, "it's that he wears his ambition in plainer view than the typical Apple executive. He blatantly accumulated influence in recent years, including, it is whispered, when Jobs was on medical leave."

    Lashinsky's profile of Forstall is likely to be closely read inside and outside the company. Scheduled to be released next week, Inside Apple is the most important Apple book since Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs. It is, in many ways, the perfect companion to the Jobs biography. If Isaacson's was the Time Magazine or People Weekly version of the Apple story, what Lashinsky delivers -- appropriately enough, given the magazine he works for -- is the Fortune version.

    Lashinsky's goal was to understand the company Jobs built as a business. But unlike, Isaacson, Lashinsky didn't have Jobs' cooperation. Nor did the company make any Apple executives or employees available. So like a correspondent debriefing refugees at the border of a war zone, Lashinsky interviewed scores of collaborators, competitors and former employees after they left the confines of Apple's closely guarded Cupertino campus.