This seems misinformed. Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple Silicon.
Not every product iteration changes the world, but they’ve pushed the industry forwards much more than most.
If they, “don’t really innovate,” who do you think does?
> If they, “don’t really innovate,” who do you think does?
Anthropic.
I believe GP was asking who innovates in Apple's space.
And applying your very argument, isn't Anthropic just polishing stuff like Transformers and Attention that were invented by other labs?
> Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
These were all existing technologies. Apple's contribution is in making them more user friendly for some definition of user and friendly.
> Apple Silicon
They made some improvements here, but they bought an IC designer firm to do it. Most of the real innovation in hardware is still coming from the likes of TSMC, ASML.
That’s what it means to build a product. So the comparison fits perfectly: Both offer the best polished (-> real-world usable) products in their category.
UI, polish, and customer experience are innovation. It takes an enormous amount of work to build consistent user experiences and build products that make choices on behalf of users that don't alienate those same users, yet Apple is able to consistently do that in ways that produce fervent customers who love their products.
I personally don't like or use most Apple products outside of my work MacBook pro, but I recognize the value and innovations there.