Corporate Reversal;Apple software licensing

The blunder: Desperate to build market share for its fading Macintosh product line, in the mid-1990s Apple executives decided after years of debate to license the core Macintosh software to other manufacturers. The program was designed to promote “cloning” of the Mac – and was itself a clone of the wildly successful business model behind Microsoft Windows.

The “duh” moment: After about a year, executives worried that the clones were cutting into sales of Apple’s own products.

The reversal: After Apple founder Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1996, he backed out of the licensing deals. He later blamed the entire program on guilt, saying Apple executives believed that if they had licensed the operating system from the beginning, Microsoft would never would have had the opening that allowed it to dominate for years.(REUTERS)