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Soo, the original question was if Apple would go the way of Microsoft. I think the risk is there. Apple's worst enemy is commoditization. As long as they can differentiate their products, they will be fine. They don't rely on market share, they rely on having products that no one else has. Look at the iPod, when it came out it was fantastic. Nothing like that existed. Everybody in the eastern part of Asia started to hone in on this product. They got closer and Apple introduced a color screen, this was still interesting, just not as different as the first generation. They came out with miniaturized version and sped ahead again. They even came out with a Nano, that people started to misplace and forget.
Then came the iPhone, and a lot of other Smartphones. Even though they were certain that the iPhone would cannibalize sales of the iPod, they still released it. With all the commoditization taking place with the phones, the iPod era is now finished. The next sphere is computers, unless our needs are very specific we have no need for an iMac Pro, do we want one? Probably. Would we love one? Absolutely. But do we need one? Not likely.
So Apple is more than ever dependent on finding that unique blend of innovation and design that has been their trademark. Perhaps it is only me, but I thought that Barcelona was one big blaha blaha. A waterproof Galaxy 5? Seems like a typical example of commoditization, to me. We can't come up with brakegrounding innovations anymore so we add little features and improvements instead. Once that happens, price becomes more of a factor in the consumers' purchase decisions. So, in that sense I do think that Apple are on the verge of becoming the next Microsoft. Then again, they have had the capacity to pull rabbits out of top hats before, perhaps they can manage that trick again.
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