Apple’s reputation as a leader in innovation is well established, even legendary. But Apple’s successes aren’t just good business for Apple…they’re the source of competing and complementary inventions that never break orbit from Apple Inc. In other words, while some companies build products, Apple builds entire industries.

In many cases, Apple did not pioneer the technology that it became famous for (many credit the Newton as being the first PDA, which it is not). But, the company’s flair for capturing the imagination of businesses and of the public has made it the bellwether that other companies admit to following.

Here’s a look at some of the ancillary industries created as a result of Apple:

Mice

Apple Inc. did not invent the mouse--that milestone in interface technology goes to Dr. Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute and later used by Xerox--but the nascent company popularized the use of mice in 1984, when it released the Apple Macintosh.

Now most computers use mice in multiple sizes, shapes, and button configurations. Companies have been created to build a better mouse, and existing companies like Kensington, Logitech, and Creative, count mice as a staple of their product line.

Although Juan Rodriguez, global product manager of living space for Kensington, could not determine how many mice Kensington produces in a year, he agrees that the Macintosh’s use of the mouse has had an impact on Kensington’s business.

In fact, Kensington’s first product was made for the Apple II, back in 1981. “Our relationship with Apple goes back to our System Saver, a cooling power auxiliary device for the first Macintoshes,” Rodriguez said. Kensington has also built trackballs and other peripherals for the Macintosh.

Podcasting

Although podcasting came into existence just before the iPod, the fact that it’s called “podcasting” (coined by journalist Ben Hammersley in 2004) is a testament to the fact that Apple’s player boosted do-it-yourself audio content from a fringe activity to a mainstream medium that challenges broadcast radio.

Todd Cochrane, CEO of RawVoice, a podcast advertising company, has tracked between 25,000 to 30,000 podcasters. Five percent of these podcast full time (others broadcast as a hobby or a part-time). Cochrane, who represents 2,800 podcasters, says he writes checks for his clients that range from $30 to $15,000 each month.

The podcast industry is also buoying makers of audio equipment and editing software. Although podcasters can easily create shows using inexpensive microphones and free software (such as Audacity), some can lay out hundreds, even thousands of dollars on a microphone and editing software (like the Peak Pro XT) plus supplemental expenditures like a Microphone Pop Filter. With the podcast industry growing exponentially, these manufacturers will grow along with them.

In addition, small consultancies like Adam Weiss: Podcast Consultant and Morley Studios now exist to help podcasters grow from small time to prime time or to create podcasts for existing businesses.

MP3 Players

Before the original 5GB iPod hit the market, the Nomad Jukebox was the MP3 player of choice for people who traded the convenience of freedom from CDs for a clunky Diskman clone with poor battery life. Then came the iPod, a music player with sharp good looks that can slip into your pocket. It rapidly became the world’s best-selling MP3 player.

Jon Tackabury, who created iTunes Sync—software that allows non-iPod MP3 players to synchronize with iTunes—said that only the tech-savvy knew what MP3 players were before the advent of the iPod. He believes the iPod made MP3 players cool enough to pique the interest of the general public. MP3 manufacturers took notice: where twenty MP3 players existed before the iPod, almost 300 exist now.

Although the iPod is a wonderful gadget, it has several gaps that rivals seek to fill. For example, the Zune can send and receive music wirelessly; other MP3 players offer the ability to tune into radio and can support other formats (like Ogg Vorbis). And then there’s the cost. Tackabury said, “The iPod has a huge price premium. Even the nano is still pretty expensive considering the storage you get.”

As long as people crave on-the-go tunes and don’t care to shell out the price of an iPod or crave a feature Apple has not yet seen fit to add, the rest of the MP3 market will be there to sop up the iPod’s run-offs. For example, Tackabury owns an iPod, but he purchased the less-expensive Sansa ($30) for his children.

Online Music Stores

In the beginning, Shawn Fanning created Napster, an online service that allowed people to share music across the Internet. But the Recording Industry Association of America looked upon it and saw that it was bad.

And Steve Jobs said, “Let there be iTunes,” a music store that charged 99¢ cents a song, and the RIAA (and Apple’s new partners, such as Sony, Universal, and Warner) saw that it was good.

So did the customers. Since launching on April 28, 2003, the iTunes music store has earned itself a majority share of the online music market: today 80% of all purchased music comes from iTunes.

“Apple created the market for paid digital downloads,” according to Joshua Boltuch, co-founder of Amie Street.com. Now companies such as his (almost twenty of them have catalogs of over 1 million songs) employ dozens of people. Napster, the portable subscription service that arose from the ashes of the first bankrupt company, employs over 100 people.

To carve out new niches in the industry, Apple’s competitors have found ways to engage the public in a way that Apple does not. For example, Amie Street bridges the gap between iTunes and Napster by allowing a more flexible payment schedule: songs start out free, but the more recommendations a song has, the more it costs, up to 98¢. Amie Street also has its own social networking site.  

Of course, music downloaded by Amie Street can be played on an iPod and organized in iTunes.

Handheld Computing

The Casio PF-3000, the world’s first “digital diary” was released in 1983, and the Newton was released ten years later. So how can we claim the Newton was responsible for the handheld computing industry?

Apple’s Newton paved the way for the Palm and the PDA because it bundled many features that already existed, like a calendar, address book, and desktop computer synchronization, and married it to handwriting recognition. Palm simplified their PalmPilot’s handwriting recognition input, and a handheld revolution was born.

Okay, this is really Palm’s victory. But the Newton was there first.

Small Form Factor PCs

Apple’s G5 Cube launched in 2000. Shuttle, perhaps the best-known manufacturer of no-bigger-than-a-breadbox Small Form Factor (SFF) computers, launched their first model in 2001. Want to guess where Shuttle Inc. and the rest of the SFF industry got their inspiration from?

The NeXTCube, most likely, released in 1988, and acquired by Apple in 1996.

But the Cube was marketed as both a computer and a triumph of design. Businesses took notice. Currently, more than 75 SFF computers models are available. Coincidence?

Microsoft

Kidding. But you have to admit, Microsoft has done pretty well out of selling operating systems based on the concept of WIMP (Window Icon Mouse Pointer), a concept pioneered at Xerox Parc but brought to the public with Apple’s Lisa and original Macintosh computers.