The remarkable resurgence of Apple and Steve Jobs has continued to accelerate in the new year with the launch of the iPhone and, to a lesser extent, Apple TV. The reviews were stellar, the stock jumped to an all-time high, and rivals were again left shaking their heads over Jobs’ ability to re-invent at a stroke even the largest and most complicated categories.

Yet Apple is exhibiting the kind of corporate hubris that is almost always damaging in the long run. Overwhelming success tends to breed arrogance and greed – especially with someone like Jobs, who is more than a little arrogant to begin with – and that in turn tends to have consequences.

Indeed, I would argue that a backlash against Apple is inevitable, though it will probably take some time before it has any effect on business. Already, there is carping in Silicon Valley and elsewhere about Apple’s closed systems, especially its insistence on locking non-iTunes music out of the iPod. There’s been grumbling about the terrible reliability record of the iPod line, and about Powerbooks with bugs. There has even been a corporate scandal, over stock option backdating, that the company has failed to explain candidly and which could result in serious legal problems sooner rather than later.

Yet somehow Apple continues to be viewed as an underdog and get a pass on issues that would subject other companies to unrelenting criticism and even government lawsuits. Dell, for example, has received an enormous amount of flak for shoddy customer service, while Apple offers essentially no customer service without the expensive AppleCare service plan.

Sure, you can take your machine to an authorised dealer if it is under warranty. But when I tried that about a year ago, one dealer would not take the machine and another said he would have to ship it back to Apple, which would take him a week or two, and I might get my computer back in a month. Apple customer service told me they would have nothing to do with me if I hadn’t bought AppleCare; this for a brand-new computer that cost more than $2,000 and had a cut-and-dried factory defect.

Similarly, the way Apple uses digital rights management software to keep iPod/ITunes as a closed system would be considered an outrage if tried by Microsoft. Apple is basically the only meaningful player in the online music business, but it has deflected criticism because it faces plenty of competition from . . . pirates!

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