Apple never invented anything. They always took something that already was nichely popular (Nokia's smartphones, Creative's MP3 players, PCs), then improved upo

Apple never invented anything. They always took something that already was nichely popular (Nokia's smartphones, Creative's MP3 players, PCs), then improved upon those things just enough to make them palatable to the masses, logo included. It's not a mystery why they've recently invested heavily in AR and electric transportation: these are two newish hardware things that still badly need to be improved upon. Unfortunately, all the money in the world cannot replace Steve Job's balls, wild flair and decisiveness. Sadly, lawyers and MBAs have taken over Apple since he departed. Other products and things newly invented are just not quite niche enough to mandate an Apple R&D budget. At any rate, Apple's still massively selling to post modern urban peasants, so fear not, they'll be around until the rise of the next great ballsy marketer.