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But now Samsung is doing to Apple what Apple did to Microsoft and what Microsoft did to Apple with Windows. So is Samsung replacing Apple, just as Apple replaced Microsoft and as Microsoft replaced Apple? OK, now I’m even getting confused. I’m going to argue Samsung is replacing Apple, much as Samsung replaced Sony, and that this is bad for you, the consumer.

...you have to agree that Samsung is cycling its products quicker and thus improving them faster than Apple does, which should result in a sustainable execution advantage. Given this is how Samsung beat Sony, one can easily conclude that, using the same strategy, Samsung may be poised to beat Apple.

Besides Samsung’s speed advantages, there are early indications that Apple is getting weaker. I’m seeing reports out of the Apple stores that satisfaction is dropping as Jobs’ policies of focusing staff on customer satisfaction are replaced by policies focusing staff on sales (and Apple has had a history of underpaying staff). On top of this, the stores appear to be downsizing staff significantly. For the first time, I’m hearing stories of sales experiences similar to those in traditional stores, in which Apple sales reps ambush folks walking in and appear to be operating on commissions now and want to close sales.

You can read the rest of this interesting article here.