Early? All of those changes were made after long using old technologies. I wouldn't consider it "raced headfirst into abandoning", more like "everyone wanted to abandon those old technologies but couldn't survive being the first to, so Apple made the move and everyone soon followed".
I don't think you really contradicted anything the GP said, and in some cases you supported it. Apple raced headfirst into abandoning old technologies, which everyone wanted to do but couldn't easily, and was able to pull it off because of their market position and status. Others soon followed.
So,"early" not as in before expected, but during the beginning of that time (i.e. more akin to "first").
