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Polaroid. Walkman. Palm Pilot. iPhone?

As demand for Apple's signature product starts to wane, now is the time for CEO Tim Cook to find the next act

Apple, iphone
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John D Stoll | WSJ
The iPhone is arguably the most valuable product in the world, representing the backbone of Apple Inc’s half-trillion-dollar hardware business and undergirding its software-peddling App store. It remains the envy of consumer-product companies world-wide.
 
If history is any indication, though, America’s favourite handheld device will someday take up residence with the digital camera, the calculator, the pager, Sony’s Walkman and the Palm Pilot in a museum. Although it’s hard to imagine the iPhone dying, change can sneak up rapidly on contraptions that are deeply entrenched in American culture.
 
Consider it was as recently as the mid-1990s when I