You can be certain that somewhere in mid 2010, there was a higher resolution version of the iPad 2 that was either in the first group of ten, or possibly even down selected to the final group of three. For reasons of cost, power consumption, or, perhaps competitive pressure (Nobody else was coming out with a tablet with a high resolution, so they could hold off until the iPad 3, or possibly 4) that was not the product you saw today.

10 to 3 to 1. Take the pixel-perfect approach and pile on top of it the requirement that Apple designers expect to design 10 different mockups of any new feature under consideration. And these are not just crappy mockups; they all represent different, but really good, implementations that are faithful to the product specifications.

Then, by using specified criteria, they narrow these 10 ideas down to three options, which the team spends months further developing…until they finally narrow down to the one final concept that truly represents their best work for production.

This approach is intended to offer enormous latitude for creativity that breaks past restrictions. But it also means they inherently plan to throw away 90% of the work they do. I don’t know many organizations for which this would be an acceptable ratio. Your CFO would probably declare, “All I see is money going down the drain.” This is a major reason why I say you can’t innovate like Apple.