Um... Apple does market research. It does a shit ton of it. It does it now and it's done it a long time ago. Back in the 90's, with children. They would truck us in, 3rd graders in the elementary schools nearby, and take us to meeting rooms and show us gadgets, educational toys but maybe they showed off software too, and asks us how we like them.

Even now there's a lot of teams dedicated to market research.