[icanhackit]

> It's no longer the innovation leader

Who is and how do you define that? I'd say in some very important spaces they're leaders, such as performance per watt in the mobile CPU space.

> by 2040 will be viewed as Xerox came to be

If you mean PARC's transition from an innovator to the one trick pony Xerox of today I'd say the difference is Apple keeps delivering high quality products and services in an expansive set of markets - some in so much demand you can't even buy today if you have the money.

Those products are rarely if ever the first to market, but always highly competent and aspirational to own. Their consistency in achieving this approximately a decade after Job's death should be a good indicator that they have a robust research, design and marketing process that will keep them moving.

I'm sure detractors would put their money on marketing being the primary driver, while happily ignoring Apple's achievements in engineering market-leading SOC's.