I think that it had less to do with apple and more to do with steve jobs. I can't think of any product from Apple after Steve Jobs died, that had any mass market effect. Either with new product or evolution of the existing product. They are still riding the Steve Jobs high.

> products that people tend to dismiss as boring or derivative

Not a good heuristic, as that describes the Apple Watch.

(Though it wasn't derivative; its contemporaries existed almost exclusively off the back of a torrent of leaks about the future Apple product. Competitors knew about it long before it was launched and raced ahead with their own junk.)

(Also I don't think the Apple Watch is boring, but it is niche. The particular niche I am fascinated with is healthcare. It's possible that within a decade or two, their Watch product could be highly disruptive.)

My point was that everything they have made was derivative in some way. Apple ii was derivative of Apple i. Macintosh was derivative of the Apple ii. iPod was a derivative of the other music devices. iPhone was a derivative of the iPod and cell phone. ipad was a derivative of the iPhone. Their watch was a derivative of the iPhone and a watch. OS X was a derivative of Mach.

Who knows where they will take ar and self driving? I would like to see what they come up with... they certainly have enough money to find out.