Apple Stock History and Product Strategy

A few years back a colleague was talking about Apple’s amazing design and suggested that we mimic that style and our product would be equally desirable. I created this illustration for their reference and suggested Apple’s product strategy and design led to their success.

• 1996–13 different products to choose from…(Steve Jobs returns)
• 1998–3 products (laptop, desktop, iMac) with 3 versions of each (basic, middle, loaded) much easier to choose from
• Continued R&D on design innovation (anniversary edition/cube)
• Gradual shift to smaller form factor (OS, widgets)
• New market (protable music/video)
• New market (iPhone)
• Apple Watch (jump the shark?)
• …?

Always sticking with a 3×3 product line-up approach until recently...

Their current product line-up is broad and potentially confusing that will inevitably lead to cannibalization of sales. It’s not clear they have kept up with R&D and I’m not sure their annual product innovations are laying the groundwork for an entirely new product and market disruption.

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