In just a few short words, Steve Jobs explains Apple’s most important decision

The iPhone may be the most successful product in the world, but it wouldn’t have been possible if Steve Jobs hadn’t made the decision. Jobs was the one who introduced the iPhone to everyone, while the iPhone was the product that led Apple to conquer one peak after another, becoming the most valuable and profitable company on the planet.

The iPhone marked a turning point for Apple, then still just a niche computer maker with a negligible market share. Despite some success with the iMac and iPod, none have been as culturally significant as the iPhone.

In fact, for the iPhone to become a reality, Apple had a very difficult decision about the iPod – its most successful product up to 2007. The iPod music player helped Apple reap record profits, creating an interesting image of Apple for people who had never used a Mac computer.

Brilliant ads for the iPod appeared everywhere. The iPod and iTunes Store dominated the digital music market almost immediately. The recognition of the iPod was so strong that when he introduced the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs described the iPhone as a large-screen iPod with touch controls. Of course, the iPhone wasn’t an iPod, but Jobs relied on the idea that everyone already knew what an iPod was to imagine what the iPhone was like.

What Jobs did was replace the iPod completely. With the iPhone, Apple turned the music player from a product into a feature. If you have an iPhone, you don’t need an iPod anymore. In any case, the iPhone is much better than the iPod.

From a business perspective, the iPhone seems like a terribly risky idea. It is a death sentence for the iPod. In the year the iPhone was released, the iPod sold 50 million units. Within a few years, that number halved. Most businesses will take the opposite approach, trying to raise the “golden egg” for as long as possible. They are afraid to do anything to affect it.

The point is, if you’re not willing to look beyond and ignore the best product you have, someone else will. “If you don’t ‘eat yourself’, someone else will,” is a famous quote by Steve Jobs. Not only is it a good quote, it’s also the best insight Jobs ever had, the reason that Apple is a more valuable company than any other competitor. A company usually doesn’t want to sacrifice its own product to make a new one. However, it was a necessary risk.