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Has Apple ever shown an aversion to cannabilizing itself?



When Jobs first came back, he eliminated every product that put Apple in competition with itself. I feel like that motivation stuck around for a while, though I think it may have been gone even before Jobs’ passing.


That was to simplify the product line. They had multiple consumer “Performa” Macs. They were about to go bankrupt.

Under Jobs they also introduced the iPod Nano and killed the iPod Mini even though it was the best selling iPod.

Of course they introduced the iPhone at the height of the iPods popularity.

The iPad overtook the popularity and revenue of the Mac while he was CEO.


I was not following Apple closely back then, but I heard, that when Steve Jobs came back, the whole product lineup was a mess with many directly competing offerings. The iPad and the MacBook are not such a direct competition. Also, before the iPhone was introduced, but the rumor mills were already running hot, many people doubted that Apple would make a phone which could cannibalize their cash-cow back then, the iPod. Well, they did, they actually placed it in direct competition, and we know how that ended up :).




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