As to your comment on innovation, Apple has largely squandered it's source of foundational income cornering itself into a niche, such that though it may be extremely innovative in it's area (Apple has some amazing processor design for example), is fundamentally constrained by the limited pieces it has to work with.
Basically, instead of undergoing a necessary evolution like we've seen from the progression of Google -> Alphabet, Apple has failed to scale itself in a way where it can keep up. This by no means is meant as a sleight to any Apple employees though, as I know from first hand experience that some of the best and brightest people are working there. It's just a matter of how scaling works. Horizontal scaling allows for unlimited growth, whereas vertical scaling quickly reaches an asymptotic ceiling.
Google for most of the last decade has had it 'easy' though. The natural expansion of its ad revenue has reduced the need for it to turn some 'evilness' dials to keep revenue and profit growing. With Apple its very straight forward, they sell things, and if you want their services you pay for them.
How much has that goodwill improved profitability? What were people going to do, revolt and use Bing?
Alphabet's approach to innovation is to throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. I’m not disparaging that approach, it’s probably what I would do if I had all the money in the world. But I’m not convinced that any of these “moonshots” are amounting to much yet.
Apple has been described by many as the world’s largest startup. They’re very careful with their focus and resources, even to the point of killing off successful products (not just iPods, but things like their routers and printers). They _could_ just spend money and grow, but they know that would lead Apple to not being Apple anymore.
So what is Apple? A strangely conservative company with a clear vision of the future that they approach slowly and methodically.
Apple brought us the “touch future” and the truly “personal computer” (the one you take everywhere in your pocket). We still haven’t fully realized this potential and Apple is still building on it. Look me up in ten years and let me know if they’ve hit that vertical ceiling.