Why did Apple kill its own product in the name of innovation?
Interestingly it is not only external market forces that can cause a consumer product or brand to become irrelevant as competitive dynamics change over time.
Consider how Apple essentially put its own iPod out of business. The popularity of the iPod, once the ‘must have’ technology device for music lovers everywhere, was largely eroded by the iPhone’s release in 2007. Once a consumer could listen to his or her music on their phone, there was no need for a separate device.
This, however, had been a deliberate cannibalization on the part of Apple.
In 2005, Steve Jobs warned Apple’s board that the mobile phones would render the iPod obsolete almost overnight. Apple’s solution, rather than waiting for a competitor to beat them to it, was to invent the “iPod killer” themselves.
Thus Steve Jobs was a true visionary who took the initiative to kill his own brain child before his competitors.