[budde]

> Steve Jobs was brilliant at coming up with new products

By my count, Jobs shepherded the following hit products (I'm giving the Apple ][ to Woz):

- Macintosh (1984)

- iPod (2001)

- iPhone (2007)

- iPad (2010)

I think you're exaggerating how often Apple rolled out new product lines under Jobs. You could even argue that the iPod and iPhone overshadow the other two substantially in terms of cultural impact.

> Their only option now is to start creating variations of existing product lines to keep them "fresh".

Isn't this kind of what you'd expect out of a business? Refreshing and supporting their existing product lines while occasionally trying to establish new ones? The iPhone is looking more and more like a once-in-a-lifetime home run product (Ben Thompson has done a lot of good writing on this), the likes of which Apple (or anybody else, for that matter) may never be able to top. This isn't to say that Apple doesn't miss having a visionary like Jobs at the helm or that their product lineup doesn't have glaring flaws. I just think the massive success of the iPhone set expectations way too high.

[Chromus]

Maybe I'm misinformed, but those seem like the "definitive" Apple products to me. They're basically the foundation of their current business, and have only been diluted since his departure.

[PacketPaul]

Why would Jobs not get credit for the Apple 2? It's not like he engineered any of the other items on your list. It was his marketing that made the Apple 2.

[stanmancan]

When Jobs came back to Apple he supposedly canned hundreds of different products and got them to focus again. While he was around, that's how things remained; each product had their own place. As time goes on since his departure, the clutter is starting to come back and the lines are starting to blur. Whats the difference between the new Macbook and the Macbook Air? The iPad 9.6 vs the iPad Pro 9.6? Apple Watch Gen 1 vs Gen 2 vs Series 1 vs Series 2?