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Steve Jobs - Apple Product Matrix Strategy 1997

JackIsBack15 · 42.3K views · 2010-01-13 · 0:55

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Overview

A one-minute clip of Steve Jobs describing how he cut Apple's product line down to a four-quadrant matrix of consumer and pro, desktop and portable, during the 1997 turnaround.

On Hacker News

Cited in Apple product-line threads as a reminder of the focus Jobs brought by reducing offerings to a few great products.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2016–2026

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What people said

tim333 · 2026-03 · Reference

I think Steve would have approved of the Neo. The 96/97 lineup was a mess so if a customer asked what to buy you wouldn't know. Now it's fairly simple - Nano for budget users and school, Air for general public, Pro for pros. 1m vid of Jobs on the product line [VIDEO]

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jsgo · 2019-03 · Reference

[VIDEO] I don't think he aimed for 4 products in a specific line, so he'd probably be miffed about how many variants there are between each. I think the 4 iPads would be forgivable if there was consistency between the various product lines naming. iPhone _ Plus vs iPad Pro vs iPhone XS Max? That by itself is 3 different "descriptors" for their big screen devices (granted, Pro is less about big screen and more about spec stuffing, but non-tech consumers I know think iPad Pro = big screen iPad = expensive iPad).

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beautifulfreak · 2019-01 · Reference

I remember that back then it was very hard to figure out which Apple computer to buy. Model names had proliferated, thanks to the marketing department, and you needed a spreadsheet to figure out the differences between them. One of the best things Steve ever did was to reduce the offerings to just "four great products." [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by JackIsBack15, played through YouTube.

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