Apple is constantly striving to introduce new products into the marketplace. At the initial stage, Apple design teams are separated from the rest of the organization and housed in a separate facility to enhance the ability to develop new concepts. This approach has proven to enhance the ability to come up with new concepts in the _____ stage of the new-product development process.

The new product development process is a process of taking a product to the market. It is a part of product design. The process continues till the life cycle of product is over.

There are several stages of the new product development.

The stage in which the Apple company is, in the given scenario, is idea generation.

Idea generation is the first stage of the new product development. In this stage, the company seeks for ideas for creating or developing new products.

Therefore, idea generation is the correct answer.