And why can't they be remade? It seems to me once upon a time Apple was in dire straights.

Perhaps it is being remade. They (finally, belatedly) got rid of the old guard at RIM, including the CEOs. The question is if Thorsten Heins can pull a Jobs.

Which isn't a knock on him if he can't - after all, Steve Jobs was an extreme outlier in a field of extreme outliers.

That said, Apple turned themselves by mostly abandoning their roots (big beige boxen) and go in a completely different, largely unprecedented direction - I don't see BB doing this. Even the iMac, iconic as it was, wasn't the turnaround point for Apple - iPod was.

> Even the iMac, iconic as it was, wasn't the turnaround point for Apple - iPod was.

Good point. Reminds me of Chrysler under Iaccoca. The K-car stopped the cash bleed and restored the company's reputation, but it was the minivan that made them fabulously profitable.