Apple’s product strategy is changing

Neil Cybart, laying out Apple’s pre-2018 “pull” strategy:

One way of conceptualizing this product strategy is to think of every major Apple product category being attached to a rope. The order in which these products were attached to the rope was determined by the degree to which technology was made more personal via new workflows and processes for getting work done. Accordingly, Apple Watch and iPhone were located on the end of the rope held by Apple management. Meanwhile, Mac desktops were located at the other end of the rope while iPads and Mac portables were somewhere in the middle.

As Apple management pulled on the rope, the Apple Watch and iPhone received much of the attention while the Mac increasingly resembled dead weight.

And:

The quicker Apple pulled on the rope, the more chaotic the end of the rope moved.

But that seems to be changing:

Over the past two years, we received clues that a major change was beginning to take hold in Apple’s product strategy. This change was on display during this year’s WWDC.

And:

Apple no longer appears to be relying so much on a pull system when it comes to advancing its product line. Instead, a push system is being utilized, and every major product category is being pushed forward simultaneously. The change was designed to reduce the amount of chaos found at the end of the “rope” that Apple was pulling. Accordingly, the primary benefactors arising from this new strategy are the iPad and Mac. This explains why this year’s WWDC announcements felt more overwhelming than those of previous years. Apple was able to move its entire product category forward at the same time.

Not sure I agree with the “push vs pull” label, but I do agree with the basic point. There does appear to be an overall change in Apple’s strategy, much more of a focus on the health of the overall ecosystem, rather than a focus on the new hotness, with older products gathering dust.

To me (as I’ve found myself saying again and again lately), Apple is firing on all cylinders. Great detailed read.