And of course the pivot to end all pivots:
APPLE!!! Which started as a company that made computers, then became a company that made mobile music players, and now is a company that makes phones.
APPLE!!! Which started as a company that made computers, then became a company that made mobile music players, and now is a company that makes phones.
A smartphone itself is just as general purpose as the Macintosh or Apple II.
I would classify Apple as “growing into a conglomerate,” not “pivoting.”
Apple right now has a movie screening in theaters, but I don’t even call that a pivot. It’s a complementary product to Apple’s main business, because TV+ subscriptions have been fueled by its built-in-to-the-OS nature. Buy an iPhone, get it free for a year, and now you’re hooked. Putting the content in theaters is just a cherry on top.
Maybe you could argue that offering the iPod and iTunes on Windows was a pivot. The iPod being wholly disconnected from the Mac was like a different business, and it dominated Apple’s revenue for a while.
If Apple had discontinued the Mac and focused on iPods, this would qualify as a pivot. But what ended up happening was that the iPod enhanced Mac sales and led to the Mac essentially being made into a portable device with the iPhone (“iPhone runs OS X” as Steve Jobs said in the keynote).
The Apple Watch could be a strong argument for a pivot product, as it’s essentially an entry into the jewelry market. The Apple Watch business is supercharged by selling interchangeable bands, which have nothing to do with computing. However, it’s still not a pivot: it requires an iPhone, which itself is basically a Mac, and the Watch itself is also still just another general purpose computing device based on macOS/OS X/NextSTEP.
Or every other company, which now essentially makes computers.
So conversely, you could say that when Apple rolled out the iPad, that was a pivot to electric cars without wheels.
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