> And if you think Apple should just "invent a thing" ... they've never really done that. Some people seem to miss that Apple has been a really, really good in

> And if you think Apple should just "invent a thing" ... they've never really done that. Some people seem to miss that Apple has been a really, really good integrator of technologies into their products. Their innovation edge is in polishing existing technologies into a more cohesive and complete whole. The early Macs lifted GUIs into a useful computer, blatantly stealing tech from Xerox PARC and polishing it. The iPod was the polished version of MP3 players, those existed much earlier than when the iPod released but the iPod was a very ergonomic solution. The iPhone polished touchscreen interfaces, and the experience of navigating the web on a phone, all of that existed previously, they just made it better. The polish has value, it made a lot of tech quite useful in the mainstream and the focus on the experience of using them is what always gave Apple an edge. They don't make the most tinkerable/power-user friendly devices and that's not their business, as much as we like to complain about that on HN and other geeky places, the real users of Apple devices don't care about that aspect if the experience works really well for them.