TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Farhad Manjoo:

This all depends on what your definition of revolutionary is. Apple’s talent is far more cunning and more profitable than mere infringement. To use a musical analogy, Apple’s specialty is the remix. It curates the best ideas bubbling up around the tech world and makes them its own. It’s also a great fixer, improving on everything that’s wrong with other similar products on the shelves.

Apple certainly does borrow ideas from others, as does everyone. But Apple’s basic strategy has always been to identify markets with great potential that are either in their infancy or are being done completely wrong, so they can do it right and completely re-do it. The Macintosh, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad all follow this.

Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player. Instead, they did it how it should have been done from the beginning. This isn’t simply “remixing,” as Manjoo describes it. This is recognizing new markets that fit Apple’s core skills, taking good ideas from others, and extending them far beyond what others envisioned into a complete whole. That’s Apple’s talent.