In the land of consumer technology, it’s hard to stay as the king of the hill. Two decades ago, Sony (NYSE: SNE) ruled the roost, with its hot-selling Walkmans and Trinitron TVs. About a decade ago, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) looked poised to dominate the global cell phone market, and more recently, Motorola’s (NYSE: MOT) RAZR set that company up for a long-term run as a consumer favorite. All those companies can now be seen in Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) rear-view mirror. With each passing year, Apple’s brand only seems to get stronger. Forget about this month’s iPhone antenna… Read More
In the land of consumer technology, it’s hard to stay as the king of the hill. Two decades ago, Sony (NYSE: SNE) ruled the roost, with its hot-selling Walkmans and Trinitron TVs. About a decade ago, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) looked poised to dominate the global cell phone market, and more recently, Motorola’s (NYSE: MOT) RAZR set that company up for a long-term run as a consumer favorite. All those companies can now be seen in Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) rear-view mirror. With each passing year, Apple’s brand only seems to get stronger. Forget about this month’s iPhone antenna glitch, which has pushed shares down from their peak. Those kinds of issues are just noise, and will soon be forgotten. But on a much broader level, there’s real reason for concern. Just as Apple is celebrating a successful rollout of the iPad and the latest version of the iPhone, a key competitor is set to steal Apple’s thunder. The competitor in question: well, it’s a $155 billion (in market value) company that made a name for itself in the field of Internet search. Read More