>Now that Jobs is gone
Seriously, what does this have to do with the point you're making?
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Jobs was the entire reason that their product offering was so focused. Look back at the mess that was Apple's product offering smorgasbord before Jobs returned and took his hatchet to it.
Without visionary leadership, most big companies are unable to resist the temptation to take the kitchen sink attitude toward product development.
The coherence of Apple's product strategy will most likely decrease as we move further past the age of Jobs... unless they find a new similarly-capable leader.
This seems more focused and less confusing than prominently selling last years’ model (which Apple has previously done).
From a consumer perspective it seem extremely hard to differentiate between different years’ iPhone models. This new clear (also visual) distinction makes it easier and provides more guidance for consumers. It’s a bit more work for Apple (what with them having to make two iPhone models every year) but for the consumer it should be much easier to understand.
The 5C stands out and makes it really clear that Apple has something that costs a bit less than their flagship. Yeah, it’s just the 5 repackaged – but I think it’s really important signalling and should make Apple’s lineup much easier to understand for consumers.
There’s still the 4S to muddy the waters, though. Ah, I guess that’s some Jobs-era legacy mess. Selling a two year old model is really lame and confusing after all :-)
Jobs was famous for eliminating SKUs and simplifying.
Then how about that?
>But Apple executives, including Mr. Jobs, were seriously considering selling a less-expensive but similar phone as early as 2009, according to former executives involved in the plan. Then, the manufacturing teams were most opposed to it.
>Their concerns, which I previously reported on in the Wall Street Journal, were about manufacturing complexity: how could Apple build so many models with so many different components? Apple’s relatively simple supply chain had always been a big competitive advantage. Having relatively few products allowed it to focus, buy parts at scale and keep things secret.
http://jessicalessin.com/2013/09/10/what-really-held-up-the-...
What I want to say is, none of us, I suppose, were in the man's head, or worked at Cupertino. We can only speculate why there is a single iPhone/iPad. (And as you can read from the article, it may be due to operations and not because Jobs was so much about “simplicity“.)
Saying “Now that Steve is dead” contributes nothing to discussion unless you work at Apple and really know what you're talking about. (In which case your comments are very valuable.)