At its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500)is expected to unveil an update to its iOS mobile operating system, a new "iRadio" streaming music service, a refreshed MacBook lineup and potentially an Apple TV update.
For a company that's had such an amazing track record of successful product launches over the past decade, that lineup feels a bit dull -- particularly considering the long wait since CEO Tim Cook last took the stage.
At most companies, a year without a major new product release isn't cause for panic. But Apple isn't most companies.
Unlike more diversified tech competitors that sell everything from big data software to cloud solutions to servers, Apple gets 91% of its revenue from just four products: the iPhone, iPad, Macintosh computers, and the iPod. If you throw in app and music sales from the iTunes App Store, that share goes up to 96%.
The problem with that business model is that it forces Apple to constantly come up with a groundbreaking new product. Apple has done a remarkable job at that: The iPod, iPhone and iPad have all defined their product category.
But competitors have eventually caught up to Apple, offering alternatives that look and perform just as well -- if not better. It happened with the iPhone, and it's beginning to happen with the iPad and Macintosh. The only product that didn't fall into that trap was the iPod, which was insulated by Apple's proprietary iTunes software and store. If anything, you can argue that Apple itself killed the iPod with the iPhone.
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