Thanks for all your excellent replies.
It can't be denied that the competition has increased geometrically in the form of Samsung and Android. Their's only so long that Apple can defend the front line with it's existing strategy. Correct me If i'm wrong, but isn't Apple loosing marketshare already with it's excellent hardware? The competition is gradually becoming an acceptable alternative.
As mentioned above, everybody, as well as Apple, will continue to improve the hardware to take advantage of new technology but this is a slow business in what *has* become a mature market. Their's only so many pixels you can squeeze onto the screen before it become economically and financially unjustifiable to the end-user.
In a mature market there is little else to do but to try to differentiate your product and to maximise value added-ness and the most logical path of least resistance will be to add internet services to your product. Why let your users make money for someone else when they could be making money for you.
It may yet be that the hardware will become the loss-leader to attract users to the internet platform, in collaboration with ISP, to save the user money or time whilst offering what ever value-added-services and Apple is in no position to compete on that playing field with it's expensive hardware.
May sound crazy, but it's what happens to all other companies in other industries and the computing industry is not immune to the laws of economics. Mobile phone companies do it with cheap phones, banks do it with financial services. Even Google is offering services and products that are subsidised by advertising. Where would be be without GoogleEarth?
It's short of a miracle that Apple has been able to get away with it for so long. It's been it's aggressive push into technological superiority both hard/soft-ware that has kept it going over the past few years but the competition has not been sleeping.
I bet Google is working on fully integrating it's web products into Android and possibly even an internet version of ChromeOS with a server-farm attached that will run on it's own hardware with subsidies from advertising and a WebAppStore.
I hear what you say about reinventing the wheel in terms of existing services but Apple has still got the superior hardware, software and OS in place to seamlessly integrate the user experience and interface with some type of superior internet service. Don't get me wrong, I think iCloud is great but it's based on *decades* old technologies, but it's adding value by allowing you to collaborate with other devices.
As mentioned above, even Microsoft has jumped on the services band-wagon with it's massive portal and Office365. I'm not saying become another MS just don't be in a position where MS was trying to play catchup several years ago.
With it's Office365 product you can bet it will be the No1 business application provider for years to come with it's desktop, collaboration and internet offering. I wouldn't put it past MS offering some type of deal with it's table and internet service.
