Empires crumble when they stop listening to their subjects/customers.

Nothing you mentioned is “arrogance” while you may or may not have a point when you frame it wrong, it just looks bad and not credible.

The unspoken factors in all this predictions of Apple vs Microsoft are the finely balanced frailties of (1) Steve Balmer’s buffoonery and (2) Apple’s blind arrogance. With the stock market hayride Apple has had, people forget that its inherent arrogance is not dissimilar to Bill Gates’ arrogance at the height of Microsoft reign, when the Microsoft name was feared. What was that, 8-10 years ago when Microsoft was king of the mountain? Give Apple less than 8-10 years, and its arrogance can bring it down.

- arrogance at glueing in all components so these can’t be upgraded.
- arrogance at refusing to offer a built-to-order option for non-shiny, anti-glare screens.
- arrogance at cutting out OSX software features that Apple wants, not what users want, e.g. SAVE AS, and the arrogance of bringing it back in Mountain Lion, but on Apple’s terms, not restoring the original function.
- arrogance of not offering a basic file system for iPad that many users need. Why not keep it away from the main area for dumbos, but at least there for users who need to get some filing done for serious work.
- the dumbing down of key professional software e.g. Final Cut

Give it 8-10 years, my friends. Arrogance has to run its course, and there is no company, nation or civilisation throughout history that has succeeded in beating arrogance. Arrogance must lead to a fall. Give it 8-10 years, that’s 2020-2022.

M$ had already planted the seeds of caution over the years amongst users by always releasing buggy / useless OS upgrades that cried out for the first aid kit as soon as it was let loose.

When you then bring out W8 and go completely into unchartered territory (for M$ that is) they have found that they have stretched the point too far – M$ have simply become untrustworthy of their own fan base who find they would rather stick to Win7 and wait for Win9 to fix Win8!

They are simply becoming pointless.

Jobs’ exile from Apple did him a lot of good. He learned how to play the long game. When he returned, he had a game plan. All Cook & Co. had to do was execute it.

… and no, I am not slighting the enormous efforts and excellent work that the whole team at Apple has done in the past 15 years. I am, however, no convinced in any way that Tim Cook is a “genius” by any definition, nor the architect of Apple’s current success, nor has his compensation been commeasurate with his batting average. Feel free to disagree, but it’s pretty clear that investors and analysts aren’t fawning over Cook’s every step either.

The answer: Not enough!
Warren Buffett figured this out over a decade ago & didn’t invest in MS.

When you are leading the pack and the opponents have to quickly respond to your moves…sometimes there is not a lot of thinking involved.

Now, Apple needs to figure out a way to appeal to the masses but keep us oldies who have been with them all along happy too – a tough road.

Some would say they are cutting off their air supply.

Sell something very cheap, but not make money on it, or produce a high spec device and try to get people to pay that much.

When you factor in the high development costs, whichever option a rival chooses, they’re likely to lose money.