It seems like Apple can do no wrong these days, but according to Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, Apple is headed toward a decline. It goes without saying that Apple will not be able to maintain its dominance forever — every company that rises will eventually fall — but Hawkins sees Apple’s decline as beginning relatively soon. “The thing is, it may take another year or two before it starts to decline, but it has to – everything does,” Hawkins told IndustryGamers in an interview. “Everything revolves so much around Steve, and no matter how good his lieutenants are, they’re not Steve. None of us is going to live forever, though I hope he lives for a really long time.” Hawkins went on to note that games made by Digital Chocolate, the mobile game lab he left EA to launch, will “always be in the App Store,” though he says it would be great if Apple were more open. “I think it would be an incredibly positive thing for the industry if Apple decided to support all of the web standards, because then Apple could be the best about everything. Right now they make a conscious choice. They want you to be in the App Store rather than the browser, so they cripple the browser,” Hawkins griped, though he noted that the closed model hasn’t had a negative impact on Apple’s iOS business at this point.

[Via The Loop]

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