Here we go, a BusinessWeek article: A Six-Step Plan for Apple.
1) Price trumps style in the computer mark
Sure it does, but that's not what Apple does. Apple charge what their products are worth, and some of that comes from the style.
2) Make 'em cool and cheap
That's not what Apple does though. Is it really in Apple's interest to see a cheap PC fly off the shelves? A small part of the Apple brand is exclusivity and luxury. It's not a "cheap" brand.
3) Ditch the all-in-one mantra
Nice in theory, but that's what differentiates the product lines. At the cheap end then you also know they are not going to end up with an 800x600 display. I'm not really sure that this would benefit them greatly. Style is a big thing with Macs, and who wants one if it's just an ugly monitor attached. (With excuse for the fact I'm typing this on a non-Apple 15" LCD, but image the CRT possibilities? Yuck.)
4) Sell that soap (on page 2)
Interesting. Very interesting. Then, of course, Apple would have to pay for disposal. I don't know if this would work for computers.
5) Sell that soap II
Try before you buy on a consumer product? I wouldn't want to buy (at full retail anyway) a computer that someone else had already used. You lose that first out of the box experience anyway.
6) Sell security
The first point I agree with. The only problem is Mac OS X is perfect (shock horror), and thus Apple would have to be really careful playing that ball. However it has credit - I have yet to see a virus payload that could get anywhere near my Mac.
All in all, it's just a rehash of prior themes (unbundle the display! make them cheap! sacrifice style!) that we've all heard before. Oh well. Won't be the end of the suggestions, I imagine.
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