What's also interesting about that chart is that software makes up such a small part of revenue. A bad CEO would see that and devote a similarly tiny amount of resources to software development because, you know, it doesn't make the company much money.<p>Not to say that Apple software is all awesome, but at least they don't treat it as a cost center that has to be trimmed.
3M institutionalised innovation by enforcing a ratio like this. I can't remember the exact figures but something like 30% of every division's revenues had to be from products released in the previous 5 years.<p>An "aged revenue" ratio might make a good performance predictor for a company: the proportion of revenues that comes from products designed in the last 5 years.<p>GOOG:MSFT:FBK:AMZN - you could get some powerful performance indicators from that simple stat.
Seems to confirm the subthesis of Carl Schramm's The Entrepreneurial Imperative. That is, established firms are having to become <i>increasingly</i> entrepreneurial in order to compete.<p>This is largely good news for those doing startups. Since the lifespan of profitability for any one business model is decreasing in the future, existing firms are going to be offering a lot of money to buy new ones or get pushed out of the marketplace.
What could they do next to keep it up? Dick Tracey watches? Augmented reality contact lenses? Brain implants? A flying robot personal assistant? None of these seems as plausible as a smart phone or a 'Dyna Pad'.<p>Oh wait, there's Mistry's "Sixth Sense" setup still to go. Where is that thing, anyway? He promised to open source it, by around this last January. Someone's bought him, for sure. It'd be more interesting if it was someone other than Apple. I'm just amazed that it hasn't been on the radar, one way or the other.
This is cool and all but the company has obviously gone through a significant shift the last three years, with the iPhone and iPad. Comparing 2008 with 2005 does not give the same ratio.
Apple is one of the best companies at cannibalizing it's own products, which is mandatory to stay ahead of the competition. Example: Apple crushed iPod sales by releasing the iPhone.
Do you mean didn't exist at all, or just hadn't been made by Apple?<p>edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted. The answer affects the whole tone and meaning of the article.