Apple has often been accused of copying its rivals, and the iPhone X is one such example. Cupertino introduced wireless charging years after Android OEMs did the same, but from what CEO Tim Cook says, there's no question of copying. 
Tim Cook discusses Apple's investments in innovation, explaining that even if it's not the first to bring a particular feature to market, there's a good chance it'll start to grow.
And the reason Apple isn't the first to bring new features to its devices is that it just wants everything to run smoothly, Cook explained. Of course, that doesn't make sense when you consider wireless charging, which was around for years before Apple brought it to the iPhone X.
“I wouldn’t say we’re ‘following.’ I wouldn’t use that word because that implies we were waiting to see what someone else was doing. That’s not really the case. You could take all of our products – iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch – they weren’t the first, but they were the first models, right?” Tim Cook responded when asked how he sees Apple following other companies.
Cook explains that customers don't need to become beta testers, and the reason some features arrive later than they do on Android devices is because the company invests more in improvements that are implemented before they are released.
“Anyway, if you look at when we started, I think we started designing the feature way before others, but we took our time to get it right. Because we don't believe in using our customers as testers. What we think is unique is the patience. We have the patience to wait until something great happens before we release it,” Cook said.
There's no doubt that Apple has played a key role in shaping the mobile industry over the past decade, but trying to convince customers that it's always the first to create new features isn't exactly a positive thing. Buyers are smarter than companies seem to believe.
