I was clearing off my desktop at work when I came across
this old Dilbert cartoon. The Boss talks about how the company has
25 focus areas for the next year. Asok replies that no company would be
dumb enough to have that many different areas of focus.
I'd kept the cartoon because my own company sometimes has too many
areas that it wants to focus on.
Then the truth hit me that having many critical projects
is just a part of being in business. Even Apple with its
"laser-focus" must have a bunch of products that it has to focus on
every year.
So I stopped by Wikipedia for information on Apple's products. I
reorganized the information into a simple list and counted the number
of products.
Apple's Product List
5 Computer Categories (not including all the possible
options)
- Mac mini
- iMac
- Mac Pro
- MacBook Pro
- MacBook Air
8 Computer Accessories (not including cables and
connectors)
- AirPort
- Time Capsule
- Thunderbolt Display
- Magic Mouse
- Magic Trackpad
- Wireless Keyboard
- Apple Battery Charger
- Apple USB SuperDrive
4 iPod Products (not including cases, cables, etc.)
- iPod shuffle
- iPod nano
- iPod classic
- iPod touch
3 Other Devices
- iPad
- iPhone
- Apple TV
16 Software Products (not including the many free programs
that come with MacOS X, e.g. Calculator, TextEdit, Preview, iDVD,
etc.)
- OS X Mountain Lion
- iMovie
- iPhoto
- GarageBand
- Keynote
- Pages
- Numbers
- iTunes
- QuickTime
- Safari
- OS X Server
- Apple Remote Desktop
- Aperture
- Final Cut Pro
- Logic Pro
- Motion
4 Internet Stores and Services
- iTunes
- App Store
- Mac App Store
- iCloud
Apple has at least 40 products that it has to focus on that need to
be updated regularly. This doesn't include the iPad Smart Case or the
latest "Red" iPhone bumper for the iPhone 4 and 4S. These are one-off
development accessories, but someone had to focus their time to develop
them.
Big companies (like Apple) have a lot of products, but they have
thousands of people (about 47,000 employees) to handle the focus on so
many products at the same time. Even with thousands of employees, not
every product is updated each year. Apple cannot ignore any for too
long, or people will complain.
Other Apple business that gets honorable mention: retail stores,
online stores, iAds for mobile advertising, Boot Camp, Apple Developer
Program, Xcode, the annual Worldwide Developer Conference, and support
for various open source and standards development. Imagine what would
happen if Apple lost its focus with this many important products and
businesses to manage.
It would become another Microsoft.
