Apple's Brand Image

As we all know, Apple is an extremely successful company that has taken over the technology market. If you look around in a classroom, the majority of students own a MacBook, even though they're priced at over $1,000 each. Apple has done an outstanding job creating their brand image- sleek, simple, and user friendly. They've taken off with the idea that simplicity is what sells, and their sales have sky rocketed. Every Apple store is sleek, white and simple, allowing all of the attention to fall onto their products.
Because Apple has been so successful within the past 5-10 years, other companies have begun to jump on the band wagon and create the same image as Apple has. For example, Windows has completely updated their look, creating a freakishly close resemblance to Apple's. Simplicity has benefitted Apple tremendously in both advertising and with their products in general.
Do you think that a simple look could work for any company, or can it only work for a select few?

Here's an example of the new Window's store compared to Apple's.