[bosch]

I agree with your thoughts about originality, but people always saying Apple does everything original is wrong. For both Microsoft, Apple and others they'll rarely ever launch something that's truly original.

Apple's timeline was iPod > iPhone > iPad (You could even argue that without the theft of millions of songs aka MP3's Apple wouldn't be bankrupt).

Microsoft's timeline was DOS > Windows > Server Products > Dynamics etc.

I would say it's very rare that doing something completely different than your baseline business is going to work. For that reason and the fact that the shareholders want you to be profitable is why you'll not see very many established companies pushing the edge.