In June 1997, as Apple teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, WIRED decided to offer some friendly advice, 101 tips to save the ailing company. We added an extra one on the cover: "Pray."
That idea was more useful than many of our other suggestions. The very first: "Outsource your hardware production, or scrap it entirely." Hmm. Today, 83 percent of Apple's revenue comes from sales of hardware like iPods, iMacs, and iPhones.
We urged Apple to consider an assortment of ill-advised partnerships. "Sell yourself to IBM or Motorola," we said. We also suggested Apple team up with a bigger company like Sony, Sega, or Oracle. It's hard to imagine Apple thriving under Motorola—the outfit that couldn't milk a cash cow like the RAZR—or Sony, whose Walkman brand was rendered obsolete by the iPod.
And then there was the worst idea of all: Switch to Windows NT. Ugh.
But not all of our advice was so wrongheaded. "Get a great image campaign," we said. "Do something creative with the design of the box," we advised. We told Apple to get rid of cables and go wireless, come up with a new logo, build a PDA-cum-phone that handles email wirelessly, port to Intel, get into retail, and give the deposed Steve Jobs, then serving as consultant, total control.
And we nailed the conclusion as well. Tip 101: "Don't worry. You'll survive. It's Netscape we should really worry about."
