The Mac Product Grid ⇥ 512pixels.net

Stephen Hackett ruminates again on the Macintosh product strategy:

When Jobs came back, he had to tell the story that Apple was on top of its game, and a large part of that story was straightening out the mess the Mac line had become. With four main computers, it was easy to understand what Apple had for sale.

Today, the world is more complicated, and consumers want more options. Some want the most powerful notebook possible, while others value lightness and thinness above all other things.

Pop Chart Lab put Apple’s product history into a single chart, and you can see exactly where their lineup got bloated, where it got Steve’d, and how today’s lineup compares. Once the last of the non-Retina Macs are dumped from the line, it will become simpler still.