Can the Cloud save Apple? At first, it seems a silly question. How can a company at the top of tech pyramid need saving? And what does the cloud have to do with it?

Here’s what:

In 2020, Apple will no longer be the top tech company, venture capitalist Fred Wilson told a New York technology conference this week. In Apple’s place will be two companies we know about — Google and Facebook, and a third “we’ve never heard of.”

Wilson, co-founder and partner at venture capital firm Union Square Ventures, was an early investor is companies including Twitter, Foursquare and Kickstarter. And his prediction isn’t as far out as it today seems.

Wilson says the Apple is “just too rooted in the hardware, they don’t have anything in the cloud.” He’s no easier on Twitter, which he predicted will be ranked “maybe four, five, six, seven — but I’m not sure they’ll be one or two.”

I believe Apple’s mission should be to use its considerable bankroll to discover and purchase, but not screw-up, Wilson’s third company that “we’ve never head of.” The best place to start looking is in the cloud.

I am not ready to say Wilson is spot on — it is hard to diss a company with $160 billion on hand — but if Apple had any great ideas, they’d already be spending that money. Instead, Apple has undertaken a $60 billion stock buy-back plan, TechCrunch reports.

That’s good for investors, but suggests Steve Jobs didn’t leave the company with any great ideas. Over the past 18 months, Apple has purchased more than 20 companies for less than $1 billion each, but none seem to be Apple’s next big thing.

Curiously, Apple missed buying Nest, which Google paid $3.2 billion for and is turning into its hardware development group.

Suppose you had $160 billion

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What is Apple CEO Tim Cook to do? With its flagship product showing its age and new and improved competitors lining up, what does Apple do in a post-iPhone world? If Apple knew, they’d be doing it. But what could top the iPhone’s huge success (and margins)?

Short of a magic new device, nothing. And anything Apple might do or any company it might purchase seems almost certain to pale in comparison to the iPhone’s profitability.

Making a large purchase, perhaps necessary for Apple’s long-term health, might be a short-term challenge to corporate profits as well as a suggestion that tomorrow’s Apple won’t be the same money machine as today’s company.

The iPhone isn’t forever. While sales remain brisk — and Apple is expected to begin a huge upgrade push this week — it no longer owns the smartphone business the way it once did.

Android phones are better than they used to be, with Samsung emerging as a formidable Apple competitor. With its purchase of Nokia and new Windows Phone 8.1 software, Microsoft now has some chance of success.

Apple has been unwilling to cut margins and prices or to introduce a true low-end iPhone. If Apple should do either, it will mean the company has sensed the smartphone game has changed.

Send in the clouds

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The best thing for Apple to do, right now, is to start purchasing and investing in promising cloud companies. Apple should also look for entertainment services it can offer, perhaps tied to its own Apple television products.

One thing Apple might do is purchase Netflix, though its $25 billion price tag is a wild overvaluation. Still, Apple has the cash to throw around and Netflix could help Apple get into the Internet television business in a much larger way.

The default course for Apple is to invest in the entertainment cloud, which meshes with where the company and its customers are today.

It is hard to imagine Apple getting into the enterprise space, yet with so much money, purchasing enterprise cloud companies and allowing them to operate separately from the Mother Ship — as FileMaker does — might be a good way to stash some profits for a rainy day.

There are large numbers of enterprise companies that Apple could easily purchase (it’s hard to name anything they might want and couldn’t afford).

• Clear today, cloudy tomorrow

Apple’s present is about as good as a company could get, yet its future — especially how it maintains current momentum — is far from cloud. I have no specific prescription for Apple, but agree the Apple of today isn’t posed to be top of the heap in 2020. That will take something new and important and if Google and Facebook are examples, it will be found in the cloud.

photo credit: Robert S. Donovan via photopin cc