Well, I'd posit that Apple _set_ standards instead
of following them.
For example, Apple's use of a DB-25 for a SCSI port and the pinout
they chose has been copied widely throughout the industry.
Try to plug in a device with the Future Domain pinout. I don't know
which came first, I just know that they are incompatible to the point
of releasing the majic smoke.
More conventionally, the serial ports follow normal
pinouts, even
though they're electrically RS-422 instead of RS-232C.
The "normal pinouts" were defined by Apple. Other systems used different
pinouts on the same Mini-DIN connector (Epson PX-8, for example).
Eric