[stripes1776]

Apple's products, whatever the category, will continue to rule until the markets catch up with them in any of their currently successful categories.

Your prediction assumes that Apple is finished coming out with innovative products. And other companies just have to copy Apple and then Apple's share will drop. But I think there is a huge problem with the assumption that Apple is finished innovating.

The next time you go to a news stand, you might want to look at the current issue of "Mac|Life" to see where Apple might be headed in the future with game-changing gadgets. They develop stuff for years in their labs before the public sees any products.

[adorno]

They develop stuff for years in their labs before the public sees any products.

You assume that Microsoft and HP and Dell and Google and IBM and Toshiba and Samsung and Motorola and all other technology companies aren't also doing things in their labs which will counter or preempt anything that Apple might be doing.

Where, for example, is Apple's equivalent to the XBox360, or Apple's equivalent to the Kinect or Apple's equivalent to Bing or Google search? Now, in every category where Apple made big news in the last 3 or 4 years, like the iPhones and iPads, there were, soon after, competitors from any different sources. Apple cannot seem to make anything that is "exclusively" theirs for a long time.

Now, how was Apple "inventive" or "innovative" when all that they did was to take a couple of mousetraps and create better mousetraps? I mean, weren't there smartphones before the iPhone came along, and weren't there tablets before the iPad came along.

It seems like you're one of those that is so blinded by your love for anything Apple, that you're not looking at the real facts.