Another Christmas gone and another banner sales sweep for Apple. Just look at the stock. It makes you wonder if Steve Jobs can do no wrong.

A few years back, some colleagues and I were exchanging examples of companies that had been good or bad stewards of their brands. The usual suspects were discussed: Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Coke, Microsoft, and others. Of course Apple, fresh off the resounding success of the iPod, was cited as a company that had an uncanny ability to keep its brand at true north, constantly innovating and redefining its own category. At the time, I wondered aloud whether Apple’s success would someday become its downfall. At what point would Apple become the monolithic IBM it so famously villified in the now legendary ’1984′ ad? (more…)