1. They've thrown significant legal and financial muscle into asserting that the iPad/iPhone design is theirs alone and unassailable. Any real changes to the layout (including ditching the Home button) is a loss of face and potentially money thrown out the window. Just adding a little bit of screen dimension to the iPhone 5 was a Big Deal Indeed.

2. Jobs famously said "If you see a stylus, they blew it." Now, I know that the Lord of Apple is gone, and I know that third-party stylii for iPads sell well (I see plenty of them in our office), but I imagine that Apple would struggle mightily against going against his Word as it was written. After all, if Steve was wrong about that, what else was he wrong about?

3. Android Nexus devices are eating Apple's lunch when it comes to cost value. Apple lives by its early adopters who'll throw full price (plus) at devices the day that they come out because those are the buzz builders, but the argument about no one else making devices that perform like iOS devices collapsed a while ago and those early adopters and Apple cognoscenti have gotten burned a couple of times in recent memory. Being told something is "revolutionary" doesn't work so well anymore, especially if you're trying to get people excited over things that their friends with Nexus 4s or Galaxy 3s were showing off last year, like NFC or new homescreen widgets.

I think that the best Apple can do now is incremental or invisible updates. Max out battery life and resolution, refine Siri and iTunes, and try to sneak the price down.