Google, Microsoft, HP, HTC, Motorola, Dell, Samsung, Nokia, RIM, and the rest of the Android crowd are all imitators. Without Apple's technological leadership they'd be lost and consumers wouldn't have the great products we enjoy today. If you're an Android user who likes the experience, credit Apple. If you're a Blackberry user looking forward to getting a new Playbook, credit Apple. If you're an HP customer yearning for a new Palm based tablet, credit Apple (which is where HP's leader Jon Rubenstein came from). Apple provides best of class products and those products then serve as roadmaps for the industry at large.
"Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines." -- Bertrand Russell