Apple’s            renaissance all started with music, with the iPod.  With the succession of successful products that followed, Apple perfected its early follower model, waiting for others to establish markets and for them to bleed out on the cutting edge of innovation before sweeping in to dominate.  Apple left it late for subscriptions but the odds are still in favour of its repeating the cycle.  Demand for a music subscription service is high among Apple’s users and streaming incumbents will not relish the arrival of what remains the world’s biggest digital music service.  Apple came out of nowhere to become the dominant download store, now it may do just the same for subscriptions.

Companies mentioned in this report: Apple, Spotify, Samsung, Nokia, Beyond Oblivion, Rhapsody, Rdio