In June 1997, shortly after Steve Jobs returned to Apple, Wired ran an article by James Daley titled 101 Ways to Save Apple (click here to view on one page). It was a checklist of items supposedly taken from a “cross section of hardcore Mac fans” that highlighted the many issues Apple faced at the time.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and 18 years later its interesting to see how many of these items were eventually achieved by Apple, many of them directly contributing to its meteoric rise to the top:

5. Straighten out the naming convention…
7. Don’t disappear from the retail chains…
10. Get a great image campaign…
14. Do something creative with the design of the box and separate yourselves from the pack…
19. Get rid of the cables…

There are plenty more in the list including the gem that Chris Dixon Tweeted that first got my attention:

50. Give Steve Jobs as much authority as he wants in new product development…

Its incredible how many of these items have been fulfilled. Others of course, proved to be completely wrong, including the first item on the list:

1. Admit it. You’re out of the hardware game…

Via @cdixon