How important is Marketing and Adopting Other People's Technology to maintaining rabid customer following? Let me give you a little help:
| Claim | Marketing | Truth |
| Invented the Mouse | Apple invented the mouse in 1983 | Xerox and the Canadian Military invented mouse and track-ball pointing devices independently in the 1970s with the first commercially sold mouse from Xerox in 1981 |
| Invented the Graphical User Interface | Apple invented the GUI with the Lisa in 1983 (then sued Microsoft) | Xerox PARC Star workstation was released in 1981 and was based on their GUIs from the late 70s. |
| Invented the Online App Store | The Apple-invented App Store opened on July 10, 2008 | NTT Docomo opened an app store about 7 years earlier. |
| Invented the MP3 Player | October 23, 2001, Apple Computer unveiled the first generation iPod | First mass-produced MP3 player was released by Saehan Information Systems in 1997 |
| Invented Multitouch | The 2007 release of the iPhone allowed you to use server simultaneous presses. | Fingerworks invented it in 2005, and was purchased by Apple |
| Invented USB | Apple invented the USB with the release of the iMac in 1998 | Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Nortel began development on USB in 1994 |
| Invented the smartphone | Apple releases the first smartphone in 2007. | IBM released the Simon Personal Communicator to BellSouth customers in August 1994. |
| Invented the Desktop Music Player | Apple released iTunes in January 2001 | Apple purchased SoundJam MP from Casady & Greene in 1999 and converted it into iTunes by removing sound recording and addid DVD burning |
If you notice a pattern, Apple is one of the best companies at
In Business School everyone talked about being the first mover. You can see here though, Apple was not the first mover or adopter. And yet these innovations are very key to the success of Apple. So being an adopter and expanding the market seems to be what Apple was good at, and convincing users that they were the FIRST to get something when they bought an Apple product was very important too.
For innovators, I would suggest you become a Casady and Greene or a Fingerworks rather than a NTT Docomo or a Xerox. Make your product useful for Apple, not the idea of your product (and make sure you have patent protection).
