Some lessons of Apple history: Back in the mid-1990s, Apple suffered from a severe bout of model proliferation. The consumer-based Performa lineup was available in so many configurations, it was hard to tell one from the other without a cheat sheet. In some cases, a model number was customized for a specific dealer, meaning that […]

The other day, I read a column in a tech blog that praised Apple’s performance under Tim Cook and the company’s stellar financial performance, particularly in the last quarter. When Steve Jobs and Tim Cook were compared, it was about the company being managed by an executive rather than an entrepreneur. So far so good, […]

With all the pretenders to the iPod throne clearly failing, and the Zune may join the list unless sales pick up big time real soon, you wonder if Apple can continue to float along as it has, resting on its laurels. To be sure, the latest updates to the iPod line were mostly cosmetic and […]

For a product that’s been out just three weeks, the iPod nano has surely kicked up a lot of fuss. At first, some wondered whether Steve Jobs was losing his mind discontinuing the extremely popular iPod mini in favor of the new Flash-based model. A few early reports claimed that sales of the nano weren’t […]