"blatantly steal from competitors and partners alike"
...what a crock of you know what. Haven't you heard there's no such thing as true invention. We all create based on what we have already seen and then add our piece to it. Apple didn't create the mp3 player...only made it better and the mp3 player is really derivative of the original sony walkman. Apple is certainly not above taking someone else's idea and running with it.
I'm neither pro nor anti microsoft but they've done a great job and had Apple somehow assumed Microsoft's lofty position, Apple would not be much different than they in their market restricting practices. Just look at the iPod. They're not about to give up their dominant position and will do anything they have to to maintain their defacto monopoly.
Apple might have in fact been more monopolistic than Microsoft and that's no stretch.
What if Microsoft Never Existed, Part 2: A Destiny Destroyed