For this to be their greatest advantage, takes me back back to the 80’s when this was considered their biggest weakness.
Apple had the market, but they became obsessed with proprietary control. Lotus 1-2-3 emerged on the DOS platform from a little unknown company that pushed everyone to the PC world.
Innovation almost always comes from small companies, almost never from large corporations. It comes from individuals with ideas. When companies get too large, they behave like governments. Google, Facebook, any new large scale thing has come from small groups of people, almost never from committees and think tanks.
This is what actually got Apple back into the market place, as they were behaving like a small company, they became innovative, and they were working against the giant Microsoft.
But things are cyclic, and my take on it, is that Apple has once again grown too big for its britches. They are becoming cumbersome, and they are going right back to what got them screwed in the first place, their inability to maneuver, which is what is putting them right on par with Microsoft.
Combine the Committee-Think of a large corporation with the sole proprietary control that blocks out innovation from the real thinkers of the world (usually college age kids) and I think you will see Apple stagnate once again.
The only way to keep their base in this event, is to keep the product trendy looking, keep the advertising sharp, continue to market themselves towards the technically challenged, and to place themselves as the tool of choice for those who are “eco friendly” and “globally minded”.
I predict you will see less focus on technology from them in the future, and even more focus on the “lifestyle” that they represent.
Your first wrong assumption is that Apple operates like every other committee driven large corporation. It doesn't.
Your next wrong assumption is that Apple markets to the technically challenged. An excellent user interface that works is not marketing to the technically challenged, it's marketing to people who appreciate excellent good engineering, and those who are fed up with crappy engineering.
The final poor assumption you make is the idea that Apple markets to the Eco freaks... While they DO make their products to the highest standards, higher than any other computer company, they really don't market it so... In fact have earned Greenpeace's ire numerous times for not trumpeting what they rightfully can claim. Just last week, GP twigged them once again, listing them 13th most Eco-friendly computer maker, below companies with more polluting products because Apple doesn't TALK and crow enough about what they do and plan to do " green" wise!
Analysts who do know about how Apple has done what it has accomplished say that the reason it continually innovates is that it acts like a perpetual start-up... Innovation in tech has been coming from Apple in the last five years and your prediction flies in the face of that inconvenient fact.
The most recent of these innovations is the iPad. All of this has innovative technology at its core, not "lifestyle." what it does have is the integrated user interface that makes the technology useable for average people and techies alike. Apple brings the power to people to do pro level work without having to BE techies.
Apple has not become the number one Tech company (and number two over all US market cap) in the World because of the reasons you so blythely assume people buy their products. It's NOT because sharp advertising of trendy looking products to technically challenged people. It's because APPLE sell excellently designed and WELL thought out innovative products, that work well together, with superb technical support, that just work, and have worked hard with other manufacturers to provide a growing ecosystem of third-party accessories, software, and services that tie seamlessly into Apple's product line. Apple and Steve Jobs have a road map of innovation that they are following... One of the key components is another innovation: AppleTV... It ties your all your iDevices into your HD TVs and home stereo systems.
I'll be making the jump from satellite to Apple TV probably within 5 months, and replacing my HP with an iMac within a year. An HP that has gone in for service 4 times, had to be system restored 5 times within the past 5 years.