What does time have to do with anything? Did other companies create a mind-blowingly popular product which redefined the market sooner than Apple did in these cases? No. They didn't.

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2. Take the best ideas and create something brand new using your brand as muscle since it is synomyous with ease-of-use.

Do you think that's easy? Do you think that all companies can do that? Because most of them don't. Apple is famous for doing this and they've done it several times. For that, they have been greatly rewarded.

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3. Dumb down for masses, trickle out features to extend lifecycle, put exorbitant price tag on it.

It's not dumbing things down to make things easier to use - I mean why wouldn't you do that? Otherwise we'd still be starting cars with hand-cranks.

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4. PROFIT

Yes! That's the goal! It's called capitalism.

It's not that your OP was factually wrong. It's that you completely miss the point of what set those specific products apart.

The iPod had the best interface in the market (by far), more storage space (by far), and the easiest way to purchase and manage music (by far). That's why the people who wanted to listen to ALL of their music on a portable device voted with their wallets.

Same for the iPhone. Do you think that using multi-touch screen technology and creating an entirely new operating system and interface to manage the most feature-rich (music, video, phone, messaging, calendar, GPS/mapping, camera, apps, etc) mobile device ever created (at that time) was an obvious thing to do? It was also the first phone to have a "real" web browser in it, which is what really put the web in our pockets.

Anyone who was old enough to use a cell phone when the iPhone was released, should be able to recognize that it was a truly revolutionary product.

With the release of the Android OS, there's obviously much greater parity in the market. And that's a great thing - right? If you love your Android, then you have Apple to thank for that.

I'd say it's been a pretty good ride for everyone.