Apple’s always had a culture of not turning back, and dragging their application developers (think Adobe) & users into their future. Dropping 3 1/2″ floppies, dropping optical drives all together, adding WiFi standard, adding then removing Firewire, etc, etc, etc.
Apple’s in a very different place than they were when Jobs reduced the product line to a 2×2 grid.
| Am | Pro | |
| Portable | iBook | PowerBook |
| Desk | iMac | PowerMac |
Since then – they’ve brought a slew of new products to market. What if they restructured like that again? What if Apple only sold 4 products?
Easy, right:
| Am | Pro | |
| Consuming | iPod Touch | iPhone |
| Producing | iPad | MacBook |
Apple has killed off so many products and product features – over the years – I don’t see a change like this negatively impacting their brand perception.
So, what if other large tech companies under went a similar restructuring?
Here’s a glimpse at some other bold restructurings:
- Google
- AdWords
- Search
- Maps
Everything else released to open source projects and shuttered – including the mythological 20% projects. This kind of focus on core products would have a jaw-droppingly impact on the internet. Initially, negative but very quickly it would turn highly positive. If only because of the innovation it would spur in replacing those products. That would be good for Google and for the internet.
Oh, BTW: Google’s 10+ year VP of Product Management just resigned.
Update 8 April 2011
Look like I got 2 right!
I still think Chrome (aka ‘The AdSense Browser’) and ‘social’ (where ‘social’ is defined as something other than GMail & GChat) should be shuttered.
End of Update
- How about Microsoft
- XBox
- Bing
- Azure
- HealthVault
If you scan Microsoft’s current offerings – you can see they’re already sunsetting some (namely Zune, MSN Direct, and Money).