> ARM chips - developed by others, Apple's first use was in... iPods? iPhone? Not sure.
ARM was created by Apple and Acorn to create low power chips for mobile devices like the Newton. You remember the Newton right? One of the first PDA's. Didn't make it but they did help shape the wave of PDA's that led to the iPhone.
Re:Apple is a traditional business
by snowwrestler on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @02:22PM
(#16979761)
I forgot Apple played a role in ARM development.
Re:Apple is a traditional business
by AstralStorm on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @01:09PM
(#16979013)
The product wasn't even new. It was just popular due to Microsoft-class backroom negotiations with carriers to sell data plans and the fact that the launch perfectly coincided with launch of 3G networks in the USA.
- USB 2.0 - developed by others, Apple's first use was in computers.
- Flash memory - developed by others, Apple's first use was in iPods.
- LCD screens - developed by others, Apple's first use was in laptops.
- ARM chips - developed by others, Apple's first use was in... iPods? iPhone? Not sure.
- Lithium ion batteries - developed by others, Apple's first use was in laptops.
- High-speed cellular data networks and chips - developed by others, Apple's first use was in iPhone.
- Multi-touch sensor and software - developed by Fingerworks, acquired and further developed by Apple. First use was in iPhone.
- Mac OS X - developed by NeXT, acquired and further developed by Apple.
- iTunes - developed by Soundjam, acquired and further developed by Apple.
You can see why Steve Jobs used to say that Apple is really a software company, and only designs hardware so it can do the software it wants. Most enabling technologies for the iPhone were provided by other companies; the only ones Apple acquired for exclusive use and development were the software and UI.
I'm thinking of the first iPhone here--Apple has obviously since moved a lot of chip technologies in-house too. Again, though, that seems to be tightly coupled to their focus on software.
Yvon Chouinard has a definition of innovation that I really like, which is (paraphrasing) that innovation is the application of technologies in novel ways to create new products. Thus the iPhone was an innovative product, even though Apple themselves did not originally invent any of the enabling technologies, and only owned a few.