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How did Steve Jobs think about product focus differently than his peers?
Jobs treated focus as subtraction backed by a complete product thesis, not as a ranked backlog.
When he returned to Apple, the company had a sprawling product line and no coherent strategy. Jobs drew a two-by-two grid—consumer and professional, desktop and portable—and reduced the company to four core products. Apple cut roughly 70% of the line. His principle was explicit: deciding what not to do mattered as much as deciding what to do.
The same logic appeared inside the products. Jobs repeatedly took existing technologies and removed the complexity separating them from ordinary users: a one-button mouse, an integrated hardware-and-software experience, and product categories made legible through design.
The difference: peers often treated focus as resource allocation across many opportunities. Jobs treated it as a design constraint. Fewer products gave Apple enough attention, integration, and conviction to make each remaining bet unmistakable.