Apple's segmentation strategy, and the folly of conventional wisdom: The following inconvenient facts must be an affront to the horizontal, commoditized, open, market share zealots. Apple has launched three major new product lines since 2001 : the iPod (October, 2001); the iPhone (July, 2008); and the iPad (April, 2010).
The company's stock is up 3,000 percent since the launch of iPod, 60 percent since the launch of iPhone, and 20 percent since the launch of iPad.
Further, when you see how Apple has used its vertical integration of the iPod media player and the iTunes marketplace across all of its devices to create a billing relationship with 160 million consumers vis-à-vis simplified discovery, purchase and distribution, it provides a window into how they've facilitated a market segmentation approach that is simultaneously harmonious and discrete.
In the harmonious bucket is the way that iOS-based Apps and their corresponding "ecosystem surround" directly overlay on top of iTunes and the iPod media player. This approach is no doubt a business school study of how companies can marry strategy and tactics across product lines and product lifecycles.