Some people say give the customers what they want, but that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d ask customers what they wanted, they would’ve told me a faster horse.’ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.

– Steve Jobs

And it turns out, if you are able to build an entire business out of a cult of personality, you don’t even have to figure out what they will want anymore. They will just want what you make.

This. Their customer base doesn’t tell Apple what they like. Apple tells its customer base what they’re going to like.