A plant grown from a cutting will be as near a duplicate to the parent as is physically possible.
Correct, as far as the genetics of the cutting source (the top- grafted part of the apple tree). The apples and flowers, etc. will be exactly the same.
However, nearly all apples are grafted onto rootstocks whose purpose is usually dwarfing the tree's size, and often addition benefits like tolerances to adverse soils, root disease resistance and precocious fruiting. These qualities of the original tree would not be transmitted through cutting propagation.
