Apple doesn't truly innovate anymore. They are tweakers and perfectors. See a Malcolm Gladwell article. Jobs's accomplishments stem more from his perfectionist and intimidating personality more than anything else.
That is, if I demanded, and bullied my subordinates to produce an exquisitely sensitive touch-screen phone that scrolled fluidly, then I'm more likely to get those results. Same approach to bugs. There will be less bugs.
I am convinced that if Apple had an easygoing CEO, their products would not be as stable and polished as they are. The attention to detail, which is no small feat, is what distinguishes Apple. It's not some grand overarching innovation. They tweak things to perfection, and they rarely are the first to move to market. When NFC takes off, then Apple will make it work well. Their talent is bringing already thought of tech to the masses, but not true innovation, unless you consider mass scaleability a true innovation.
The one caveat to this is that Apple may do tons of R&D but just never tell you about it, so everything they come out with seems to take a long time. And their failures are kept in-house. Unlike Microsoft Research.
But they stand on the shoulders of everyone else. I would argue that Microsoft and Google are far more innovative. Google especially. They do project glass, the Google Now stuff, Google TV, etc. Everything they do is much more cutting edge, and lots of their stuff fails. But one look at the company's DNA and you can tell that they are the geeks who love to push the limits. Their problem is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Lots of the stuff that they put out is in a beta form, and they sell it: Nexus Q. Samsung is a straight up copycat. They do nothing innovative, nor do they tweak anything. they are a totally me-too company.
I don't believe that Apple will be on top for much longer because history proves it, and b/c innovation is what drives the industry, and no one company ever has a monopoly on innovation. Not even Apple.
