And the Nokia 9000[1] launched 11 years before the iPhone. Post-Mac, when has Apple ever been first on anything?

They weren't first on MP3 players, smartphones, tablets, online music stores, or smart watches, either.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator

It's not an issue of being first or not. It's about being late. They weren't late to those other parties.

You keep calling them "late" without explaining how or why. What key metrics would you look for to dub them 'not late'? How are the Ubers and Googles of the world doing in comparison? You may be right, but I want specifics.

Obviously I'm expressing an opinion here. One metric is talent availability. Uber has already hired the available talent. They hired half of CMUs robotics department - presumably with juicy stock options. Apple, being a large public company, isn't in the same position to offer such incentives to lure away the talent. The other metric is data. Uber and to a lesser degree Tesla have been accumulating data for some time. This business is all about talent and data.

I'll also add that this is a service economy, and while Apple get accolades for their physical products, even Apple fans say that their service offerings kind of suck.

Certainly, but I was interested in hearing your opinion elaborated on, and I appreciate that you did so. Upvoted accordingly :)