Ok, but you said features not trends or standards.

Apple does not lead in features at all. They are probably among the least innovative in terms of the phone manufacturers. They don't have to because they are the gold standard. They dictate the market.

When they adopt a new feature, it's almost always a feature another phone manufacturer has already created and had some degree of success with. What Apple does is refine and perfect. They will often use different nomenclature and subtly different protocols to make it appear like they innovated, but really it's just a refined and more specialized version of something someone else has already done.

Other manufacturers innovate because they are competing with each other and Apple. Apple gets to sit back and learn from their successes and mistakes. Then they get to issue their stamp of approval on the features and release a finished and polished version of the feature themselves that is more stable, more intuitive and more simplified. That's what they do.

Apple is much more likely to remove features (like the phone jack) and convince customers that they don't need it or it's obsolete. Other manufacturers can then choose to retain the feature, to try to distinguish themselves from Apple, or not. But because Apple has a reputation for being the gold standard and industry leader, this is often a losing game because any attempt to make their phones seem different from Apple makes them only feel cheaper or inferior to average consumers even if it's objectively a better feature.

Also, I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about with the Samsung phones before the iPhone. Do you mean pre-2007? This is first off so long ago that it has no place in the current conversation, and secondly you are talking about two different types of devices. The smartphone space was extremely limited until the iPhone popularized it in 2007 and Androids weren't commercially available until almost a year and a half later. Samsung was not making smartphones at all until 2009 *Edit: I forgot about the Samsung Blackjack. I had the first iPhone, and got it on the first day of it's release. Up to that point the only remotely popular smart phones were blackberries, palm pilots, and then the sidekick and chocolate JUST before the iPhone came out. IPhone's principle innovation was being first to market with a full color touchscreen interface that was designed not to require a stylus for precision and integrating the features of their iPod into it. The original iPhone didn't even use apps until it had been out for almost a full year.

In terms of the smart watch, Apple hardly innovated either. There were several smart watch companies that predate the Apple watch, and when Apple introduced the Apple watch the biggest difference between that and the other options was that it integrated better with the phone's OS. Microsoft, Seiko, Fitbit, Suunto, Fossil, and I think Pebble all had smartwatches before Apple and Apple's really didn't add any especially new features. They did better integration with the proprietary OS that they own and have exclusive access to, but that's about it.

I'm not hating on Apple here just so you understand. There is a good reason they are in the position they are in. Their products are the most well polished and reliable. Their mobile chips are the most powerful and their software is extremely optimized in ways no one else can match. But if you think they do that much in terms of feature innovation, you've been drinking the Kool-Aid my friend. They fall behind even small blip companies in that regard specifically.