Apple is a great example – probably the best – of a company that keeps one step ahead of everyone. While other companies rush to copy the current product line, Apple is already about to release the next “big thing.” It not only releases a new product, but it kills off the older lines -the ones the others are copying.

For example while companies were trying to copy the iPod Mini, Apple brings out the Nano. The Mini was the most successful MP3 player of all time. And Apple killed it off.

Now, while others are trying to emulate the iPod Classic, it brings out the iPod Touch. One of the companies desperately trying to play catchup is Microsoft, with it’s Zune player. It has just released a new version of the player – a scant few weeks after Apple leapfrogs once more.

The BBC has an article which contains a quote which captures this nicely :

“This device with the all-too-familiar dial wheel compares reasonably favourably with last generation iPod players,” said Mark Mulligan, analyst with Jupiter Research.

“Microsoft needs to come at Apple from an unexpected angle but at the moment it is Apple with its new iPod touch and nanos that is shaking up the market,” he said.

So how does Microsoft do this? By ignoring what the others are doing, and starting to explore outside the normal design boundaries. At Innovaro we do this with our ‘Futures’ programmes which bring in perspectives from sectors seemingly unrelated to that at hand. For example, with the current Technology Futures programme we ran for Shell Gamechanger this year, we had insights from world experts in areas as diverse as genetic engineering, architecture and superconductivity.

As with the last programme we ran in 2004, this has produced a series of invaluable inputs to Shells strategic planning, so much so that we will now be running the programme with a much shorter gap between the iterations.

But back to Apple – my bet is that within the next 18 months Apple will kill off one it’s current iPod lines and release something that is again revolutionary – and which will catch competitors off guard.