As long as they still cranked out out new, popular
products, companies like Apple would continue to profit by
being the first to market, which often confers a long-term
advantage.
Apple being first to market? When has Apple ever produced anything novel? Personal computers, MP3 players, smartphones, and tablets; were all invented by other companies. Apple's virtue is superior execution, not being first to market.
They didn't invent the tablet, they invented the tablet as we know it. It consider that to be a much harder thing to do. The concept of the tablet hardly needed inventing, just watch Star Trek, it was pretty obvious. The less obvious is the "how" (what you call the execution).
