Apple sets "gold standard for corporate America"

There's a glowing article about Apple at Fortune today. Here was the stand-out line for me:

"Apple's philosophy goes like this: Too many companies spread themselves thin, making a profusion of products to defuse risk, so they get mired in the mediocre. Apple's approach is to put every resource it has behind just a few products and make them exceedingly well."

Consider Apple's product line. There are three laptops, the MacBook, the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. Even a potential customer who's never used a computer before can understand the distinctions just by hearing their names.

"MacBook" is obviously the basic laptop. The "MacBook Pro" is obviously a "better," or professional, model and the Air is somehow different than the two. Easy.

Not to pick on Sony, but look at their lineup of Vaio laptops:

1. Vaio UX Series

2. Vaio TZ Series

3. Vaio SZ Series

4. Vaio CR Series

5. Vaio FZ Series

6. Vaio NR Series

7. Vaio AR Series

What? Just reading the names, I can't surmise anything about the differences between these machines. Plus, there are seven models vs. Apple's three.

The same goes for desktops. Apple builds three; the iMac (a name nearly everybody knows), the Mac mini (obviously smaller and, one would assume, lower priced) and the Mac Pro, which follows the pro-level naming convention of the laptop line.

The iPod line is slightly more convoluted (if "convoluted" is even the right word) with four models

1. iPod shuffle

2. iPod nano

3. iPod classic

4. iPod touch

I bet the classic will eventually be replaced by the touch, once the cost of flash drives comes down.

The Fortune article is full of good stuff, so go and read it.

[Via MacDailyNews]