Steve Jobs is gone and lately Apple has not introduced any ground breaking new ideas.
Relying on law suits over patents that should not have been granted in the first place (because others invented those innovations first) will not last long.
Somewhere along the line, consumers will get sick of Apple's pedantic lawsuits over rounded corners, icons in a grid, fingers swiping to zoom, etc. Apple patent law suits can become negative publicity hurting Apple's image; because it can be perceived as anti-competition-behavior and as plain bullying.
Apple's strength currently are:
• the number, diversity and usefulness of apps available for its phone.
• its slick interface
As far as interface is concerned, others have caught up. That leaves the apps.
Windows is late to the party.
Android has a chance to build its own apps library. Over time, Android can kill Apple's advantage in apps.
iPhones are expensive.
At some point in time in the near future, Apple has to decide whether to lower its sale price per unit of iPhone.
If it does not, it will die a slow death.
Nokia still has a big slice of the phone market share. It makes cheap low end phones for humongous masses of people who just want to make a phone call and send some sms text. That's all they want and need from a phone.
[Image credit: ThomsonReuters]