Why is Apple able to create totally new platforms for computing and networking year after year while other high tech companies are more like one-trick ponies? Part of the answer is that Apple has Steve Jobs, a CEO with a strong, personal vision of what computing is all about and willingness to make bold moves. But the essence of Jobs’s approach is spread throughout the company. In brief, Apple is a company that is never so deeply in love with its own products that it fears cannibalizing them for the sake of innovation. See this article from CNET’s Nanotech column, Apple: Disrupt or perish:

Let’s set the stage be asking why can’t a Sony or a Toshiba or a Dell emulate Apple’s success? They’ve been around the block a few times and have access to equal, or better, resources. A full answer to that question is too long and involved to address in any format other than a Ph.D dissertation. But a willingness (or unwillingness in the above-mentioned companies) to eat one’s own progeny–metaphorically speaking–is crucial. In market parlance, it’s referred to as disruptive technology. What makes Apple special is that it comes from within the company.

It’s a very concise answer to the innovation question.