This topic came up today at my workplace while we were discussing WWDC. If you really look back at Apple's products, they really tend to be "fast followers".
In general, Apple likes to sit back, wait for somebody else to innovate and open up various market opportunities, pick one and then execute the hell out of it and push the envelope where other companies have execution weaknesses (and exploit those weaknesses). This has a side effect of "settling" a diverse market around pretty much whatever Apple has chosen.
It's beautiful strategy for the most part and it's too easy to look at an Apple announcement and say "welcome to 2-5 years ago Apple, thanks for finally catching up" without thinking about the context of their actions.
In general, Apple likes to sit back, wait for somebody else to innovate and open up various market opportunities, pick one and then execute the hell out of it and push the envelope where other companies have execution weaknesses (and exploit those weaknesses). This has a side effect of "settling" a diverse market around pretty much whatever Apple has chosen.
It's beautiful strategy for the most part and it's too easy to look at an Apple announcement and say "welcome to 2-5 years ago Apple, thanks for finally catching up" without thinking about the context of their actions.