The two products I'd like to know more about with regards to innovation are AirPods (who made those? how did they come about?) and the MX chips.

How did they build the expertise to make the latter in-houes while relying on Intel all these years? For the chips, it seems like "innovation" has shifted more towards the R&D side. Design is one way, and it was the Steve way, but companies like IBM etc. used to do it well coming more from R&D as well.

Going forward, maybe innovation will just look different at Apple, and we don't quite recognize it yet, especially because Steve's design-led approach was always so flashy and obvious to the eye.

Good piece overall, we're definitely all holding our breath for their next "big thing." I learned a lot! Thanks!