I'm not talking about getting out of the hardware business.

"The factory that Jobs had configured to produce 10,000 computers every month produced hundreds every month. Because of the low volume, human labor was cheaper than maintaining the automated equipment."

http://lowendmac.com/2013/next-years-steve-jobs-before-trium...

My point was that he built a great factory. That is not diminished by his inability to sell the product.

But, he is gone and as others note it was a long time ago. It's probably not very relevant, in retrospect.

In the entire life of the company, that factory built about as many computers as Tesla built cars just last year. And Tesla is a tiny player. This experience hardly seems relevant. Modern Apple is built on NeXT's software, but I don't think there's much if anything of their manufacturing in there.

You are probably right. Doesn't seem that long ago to me but it really has been decades.

I know what you mean. I often feel like the state of things in the 90s (when I really started with computers in earnest) is "how things are" and all the changes since then are recent developments.

Looking more recently, Apple does have their own factory in the US to make the Mac Pro. I wonder if any of that was intended as a testbed for in-house manufacturing in general.