To combat potential drops in the market it is good to focus on stocks with very low P/E ratios as they simply cannot drop as much as say, "Amazon" which has a P/E that reminds people of the 2000 dot-com bubble and have about 90% to drop if all goes sideways.
Apple, surprisingly still has a relatively reasonable P/E at 18. However, I'm not an Apple investor (sorry to say thus far
) because of the fact that their earnings could literally drop by 75% if someone simply makes a new tablet, phone, or whatever that takes any bit of traction. Apple, in my opinion, is in bullet-dodging matrix style mode right now with every other company taking their best shot. They have proven to be "Neo" for about 5 years, but who knows when they are finally going to take one to the gut! When they do, as you say, they will plummet like the "Superman ride" at Six Flags California, and will create a pretty negative vacuum for the rest of the market to get sucked into.
That said, I think Apple will continue to "Neo" for at least another year, probably not as well, but I wouldn't recommend people dumping Apple stock just yet. Although I personally did when it was at 200
But not because I thought they were doomed any time soon, only because I try to be on board with a company that has at least 5 good years left, and a year and a half ago I just didn't think Apple had 5 years left, and I don't think it has 3.5 left now, but it probably has 1.5.