On: What Apple’s quiet failure can teach you about your business

[redial]

I don't call this events failures, I call them tries. And many, many tries are required to learn and create a single success.

But maybe that is why I'm no analyst.

[hasenj → redial]

I can't help but see this as a post hoc rationalization.

When Steve Jobs was at its helm, did Apple have failures that it needed to rebrand as "tries"?

[redial → hasenj]

Don't get me wrong, there are failures, Ping, or MobileMe being some examples, but I think that is the result of not trying (and learning) enough.

For example, it is said when designing the iPhone they tested (tried) two different operating systems, one based on OS X and the other one based on Linux. Even the hardware itself was first started as an iPad like device and was later decided to shelve the original project and do the iPhone instead. When you try an idea you learn, and you might even learn that it is a bad idea. I don't think of that as failure, the only failure is to not use what you learned. I'd be worried if they, despite the knowledge gained and to not be thought of as a failure by pundits, decided to be courageous and go to market anyway.

[pilsetnieks → hasenj]

The article refers to the secret car project that was never launched. It is fairly likely that in Jobs' time there were a fair amount of cancelled or downscaled projects as well but we just haven't heard of them. For example, the TV comes to mind - there were a lot of rumors about it at the time, and it was mentioned in his biography - and nothing came of it.

[pasta → hasenj]

I think you overestimate Steve Jobs.

What goes up must come done. It's very normal for a growing company to see a period of loss. Even invincible empires died as history tells.

Of course Steve Jobs created a big company. But it doesn't mean Apple would never fail if he was still here.