Can Jobs do it again?

Apple Computer is poised to revolutionize the world once again, this time in the realm of consumer entertainment -- that's the premise of a cover story in the new BusinessWeek.

Its major strength is, as ever, visionary but mercurial CEO Steve Jobs. His unique position of power, bridging technology and mass entertainment, could make Apple an important player:

For years, Jobs's perfectionist approach to product development has been experienced only by Mac users. But now, massive changes are roiling the worlds of entertainment, computing, and communications, giving him a broader stage. Increasingly, content -- that magical lifeblood of movie studios, record labels, and publishers -- is being transformed into digital form. At the same time, the Internet and wireless networks are evolving to deliver those bits almost anywhere, at speeds never before possible. Couple all that with disk drives, semiconductors, and high-resolution displays that are growing ever smaller and more powerful, and technology is liberating entertainment from its past. How we watch movies, look at photos, listen to music, even read a book promises to change profoundly in the next decade.

No one may have a better chance to make order out of this chaos -- and then profit from it -- than Jobs. He bridges the marketplace: He has a hand in the worlds of computing, music, and movies to see how they're evolving. He has the track record with consumers: His string of hits includes the original Mac, the candy-colored iMac, and the iPod. He has the pieces: Apple not only has a combination of software and hardware skills unique in the PC business, it also has strong product design and one of the world's best-known brands. And he has the silver tongue: When the record companies had dug in their heels against the Net in Napster-induced terror, it was Jobs who persuaded all the major labels to put their music on iTunes.

But there's a downside, too:

Jobs can be so enamored of his own vision -- and so bull-headed about pursuing it -- that it has blinded him at times. ...

While consumer-electronics giants develop scores of products at once and endure a few flops, Jobs's hands-on approach means Apple can focus on only one or two brand-new projects at a time. "Apple's problem is that it's just a blip by consumer-electronics measures," says consultant Paul Saffo, research director at Institute for the Future. "It's too big to play the Bang & Olufsen angle, but it's just a blip next to Sony or Samsung. That's a really awkward place to be."

BusinessWeek says rivals such as Sony are dismissive of Apple's prospects as a competitor. And skeptics caution that Jobs may be repeating with the best-selling iPod the same mistake he made with the Macintosh: keeping it pricey and cool but out of reach for many.

The challenge for Apple, then, comes down to innovation and design. Can it make products that are so much better than rivals' that it can command a premium and keep its market-share lead? Jobs seems capable of pulling it off.