As George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". It seems Apple is becoming the biggest bully in the market and the last time, that didn't end very well for Microsoft.

Yeah, they still make a huge amount of money, but that's because they achieved a level of market penetration so high that it was almost a monopoly. Companies spent lots of money on MS technologies. People everywhere got used to Windows because it was easy enough and it was perceived as 'the only way'. Most people didn't know that there were alternatives to Microsoft's products, and most of those who did, saw the alternatives as something hard to learn, or too technical.
And eventually, the bullying ended up eroding Microsoft's public image so hard that it is still trying to recover from that.

Apple on the other hand, nor is able to achieve the same level of market penetration anytime soon, nor it is seen as something without competition. OK, maybe some people see them as something without competition, but that's because they are so into their iProducts, that they have stopped being objective. But for most people, it wouldn't be that hard to change from iProducts to any other product out there, whether it's Android or Windows or whatever.

--- My 2 cents:

Apple is a strange company, because it can be understood much better as a rock band than as a hardware manufacturer.

As a rock band, they had some world-wide hits. Critics loved them, and people followed them (even sleeping in the streets to buy some tickets!). They have their groupies and a relatively big fan-base that considers Apple as The Best Band Ever. But money and fame gets into your head. And someday, those fans will slowly start to disagree with some of the "new turns" their beloved band is taking. At first, most of the fans will think "ok, it's just a short phase, they will be back on tracks". Then, for whatever reason, one of the main members leaves the band, and it's replaced by someone else (a low blow, I know, sorry), that has been close to the band for a while, but of course, he has it's own style, somehow different from the guy leaving. "It's a band, not just a guy, the band will go on just as always" some of the fans say, but a few more start to look with suspicion. With the passage of time, the band releases a new cheesy album. Their music is starting to be really commercial. This time, the media notices and the critics are not as happy as they used to be with this band. At this point, their fans take a few different paths:

1- Some will admit that the band is not what it used to be, and may start to look for other horizons, becoming more open to new music and maybe, realize that there are other good things under the sun.

2- Others will just get a little more nervous. But maybe not because they are just loyal, but because they're still not ready to let that phase of their lives behind, they keep spending money on buying the band's products (albums, merchandising, tickets, etc), in hopes that the next album will be better, just as it used to be.

3- A few others will take a very similar path as the previous group, but they do consider themselves loyal. They are not very happy with the current situation. The band does not causes the same level of joy on them as it used to cause. But they were there with the band since the beginning and they will be there for the band now.

4- Finally, the groupies, the hardcore fans, will go berserk and will defend the band, the new direction, the new members, the new cheesy album, and at the same time, attack the critics, other bands, and the former fans who leave their rows. They spent so much energy and money following the band, that they are now too vested in it. They enter in total DENIAL. They don't want to feel like stupids, like if they made a mistake supporting the band so much through the years. After all, humans are tribal by nature, and deep inside, they want to keep belonging to that tribe.

Not surprisingly, this can match very well to the Kübler-Ross model (5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance).

The ones in (4) are mostly in denial. Some of them, are in anger, projecting their fury to others.

The folks in (3) are someplace between anger and bargaining.

People in (2) are clearly in the phase of depression, as they are still not ready to move on, but they realize that the band is not what it used to be.

And finally, people in (1) are in acceptance. They've moved on.

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In their current state, Apple is becoming this band. They are forgetting about their user base, and going full commercial. While this means lots of money in the short term, they still lack a real classic. They lack a Thriller (MJ), A Day in the Life, a Bohemian Rhapsody. Windows is a classic. Office is a classic, Google Search, Google Maps is a classic. Every now and then, almost everyone goes back to those products even if they've switch to something else.

You can make a huge amount of money with a Summer Hit, And Apple has been doing it for a while, just like Gaga. But if you don't have a classic, what stops you to becoming "last year's summer hit"?

Hardware is becoming less and less relevant. And Apple's lack of a classics in the software front is what makes them have a low barrier to exit. And I think that's the very reason of why they are closing their ecosystem more and more with each release. Their walled garden is quickly becoming a prison yard.

And finishing this very very long post (as I doubt someone will read all of this, lol) their attitude is not helping them to maintain the current status quo, with them as the current Summer Hit.