Most of our competitors are interesting in doing something different, or want to appear new — I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better. Sir Jonathan Ive interviewed in the London Evening Standard

It just seemed so obvious to me that it had to be a touch screen. And it had to be portable. It had to fit in an attaché case. It had to be comfortable to hold. That was the idea. For tablet computer visionary Roger Fidler, a lot of what-ifs – The Washington Post

Apple has now transcended even the traditional super brand status of a company like Nike or Coca-Cola, and become something else entirely. It has become a cultural phenomenon all of its own, like nothing that has ever come before it. The Story That People Should Be Writing About Apple | The Technology Geek