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The solution to many of Apple's potential problems, the public relations disaster of indentured Chinese laborers, the threat of a disrupted delivery supply line*, and the ability of Apple to make inexpensive consumer electronics, reminiscent of Sony's heyday, well into the future is, you guessed, it, to build their own completely automated, computerized plant that can assemble these products without a human hand ever touching them. Such a plant, run by robots and Macs, would be expensive to build. In the long run, however, the economic and political advantages of such a plant would be enormous. Apple would stop sending money to China and suffering from continuing scrutiny over labor conditions in a foreign country. The plant would become a poster child for modern, 21st century manufacturing. Imagine Steve Jobs taking the next president of the United States on a tour of a plant that makes its own electricity, cleans its own water and cranks out millions of iPods and iPhones each month. And sends power back into the grid on occasion to power our plug-in hybrids.

Like a stoic chess player, Apple gives nothing away, but the hints are there as to what could be next. And naturally, there's no shortage of speculation.

The Valley giants both want to decide how users access the mobile Web. Eric Schmidt's exit from Apple's board may be the shot that starts the race in earnest Over the past three decades, a few titanic rivalries have defined the technology industry's megatrends, ultimately determining which products finally end up in consumers' and companies' hands.