A spate of Apple news this week highlights the fact that the iPhone maker, like Google, needs to diversify its business, and become less dependent on the decelerating smartphone market. Reports that Apple would soon launch a home hub to rival Amazon Echo, just as Google did this week (see separate item), were quickly followed by rumors that it was interested in buying Time Warner. In both cases, the moves seem aimed at one competitor above all others – not a traditional mobile major, but Amazon. Apple’s competitive landscape is changing, and it can no longer rely only on the appeal of its hardware and user interface design when one of its biggest threats is Amazon – whose retail roots…