I don&#x27;t understand why design-focus isn&#x27;t enough of an explanation for Apple&#x27;s success. Sell the most powerful product humanity has ever seen (the computer) and put human factors at the heart of the product process. That&#x27;s it.<p>No one else did that. Every other computer company allowed other motivations to trump human factors.<p>These days it&#x27;s standard practice... although, few people know how to tell a good designer from a bad one, so they hire bad ones who do crap work and the institution never really trusts them and project managers end up running the show, mostly by allowing powerful employees to put their pork barrel projects on the schedule.<p>Steve Jobs could tell good designers from bad ones, he provided a wall of protection and power around them, and he fought like hell to keep the company solvent until the rest of the organization started to trust them. That&#x27;s why they have devices people want to re-purchase year after year.