When Apple is 2 years behind you, put your things in order

Daniel Eran Dilger, Apple Insider, steps through a series of cases where Apple was seriously behind, then overtook the competition. A few examples:

2007: A year prior to Peak iPod, Microsoft announced its own Zune to much fanfare as the “iPod-killer,” just as pundits began imagining in parallel that phones playing MP3s would kill Apple’s iPod empire. Everything seemed so dire for Apple. Zune could do wireless WiFi sync and MP3-playing feature phones appeared to cost much less than an iPod!

However, that year Apple introduced iPhone. Steve Jobs described it as “a widescreen iPod” in addition to a phone and “breakthrough internet device”. Zune staggered along like a zombie until it was terminated while basic phones playing MP3s were blown away by Apple’s “iPod phone” with a real web browser.

And:

2011: Google floated another feature Apple lacked for several years: Near Field Communications, or NFC, used in Google Wallet contactless payments. Google was supposed to rule in this arena, but Wallet failed to ever gain much traction, despite efforts to build out NFC payment infrastructure. Apple didn’t have NFC because it was so behind.

What Apple did instead was rapidly introduce Bluetooth 4 (starting with iPhone 4s) and build out a platform of near-proximity wireless integration between iOS devices, Macs and Apple Watch that was later branded as Continuity. Prior to launching Apple Pay, the company also lined up the dots for Touch ID, building security right into the design of its products.

Apple didn’t introduce Apple Pay until 2014, at least three years behind Wallet. However, the effort Apple put into building foundational support, and its prescience in supporting the much faster Bluetooth 4 rather than NFC for nearby connectivity, launched Apple far ahead of Google in both support for modern Bluetooth and in NFC payments, despite (or perhaps, because of) not being first to rush a loose payment concept to market.

Lots, lots more here. Terrific job, Daniel.