[zpeti]

That's very easy to say in hindsight.

Cannibalising a public company's most successful product and profit source is extremely risky, especially for management. There is a reason this is so rare. It goes against many of our ingrained behaviours as humans.

So I don't think it's as obvious as you make out.

[scarface_74]

It was very obvious even then. Apple was selling 50 million iPods per year at $200 a piece. During the iPhone introduction, SJ said he was aiming to sell 10 million phones to capture 1% of the market the first year.

That means even then, the phone market was 1 billion devices a year. That was a much larger market than the stand alone music player market.

It was also clear that’s where the market was headed. Phone makers were already starting to sell music capable phones