This is an interesting article comparing Apple's Tim Cook era after Steve Jobs to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer era after Bill Gates. https://steveblank.com/2016/10/24/why-tim-cook-is-steve-ballmer-and-why-he-still-has-his-job-at-apple/ Basically it correlates the two, pointing out that profits were extremely healthy but real innovation faded. Microsoft is ubiquitous, but doesn't elicit a lot of excitement these days. Apple still has loyalists, and the marriage of operating system and software to the hardware it's created for is still a great advantage. But now Google is threatening to take that advantage on itself with their newest hardware. And really, what is Apple without innovation? To me, next year - with the iPhone's ten year anniversary - is going to be very important for Apple's image. They need a big statement to show the world what they can continue to do (if they can still do it).
