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>example of Apple and Nokia. Only Apple successfully built a broad customer experience and robust ecosystem. “You can become extinct when you only focus on the

by vlehto 11y ago

>example of Apple and Nokia. Only Apple successfully built a broad customer experience and robust ecosystem. “You can become extinct when you only focus on the hardware,” he said. I'm pretty certain Nokia's problem was never focusing only on hardware. They focused on software all the time. The problem was that Symbian sucked and they didn't open up for alternatives until it was too late. Samsung actually does just hardware and they are doing fine.

Retric 11y ago
Samsung's smartphone profits are tanking fast. Sure, Google saved them in the short term, but in the consumer electronic industry over the long term you really need to be a good software company or your margins are going to end up paper thin.
- vlehto 11y ago
  But Samsung is still making profit. Samsung smartphone market share has been growing and Apple going down. No wonder you get fat profits for a while, if you overprice your products. But customers seem to be catching up.
  - Retric 11y ago
    Samsung's smartphone profits are ~1/2 what they where a few years ago and it's ~1/5th Apples even with a much larger and growing market share. Yes, there brand is growing slowly, but being GM and selling more product on paper thin margins is risky should the market change in any way or a slightly more efficient competitor shows up. PS: IMO, Samsung is in the perfect place to work on the software side of things. Sure, it would be expensive, but it's one of the few ways to push actual growth. Otherwise, there going to pull a Dell, ride the growth wave and then shrink as growth stalls.
- femto113 11y ago
  I think if there's one thing Ford should be afraid of from Apple it's not taking marketshare, it's taking profit share. Apple has carved out exactly that slice of the the smartphone market where you can make a profit, and left everyone else to fight over the no-margin remainder. Apple could conceivably do something similar in cars by building one or two models that compete directly with the most profitable cars (though it seems that all of Ford's profits actually come from big trucks--hard to imagine someone hauling a half-ton of manure in the back their rose gold Apple Pickup). [1] http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/30/ford-f-150-profit-per-vehicle/ http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/30/ford-f-150-profit-per-veh...
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
    > Apple could conceivably do something similar in cars by building one or two models that compete directly with the most profitable cars If it were that easy, why hasn't anybody done it?
    - femto113 11y ago
      Because it is actually not easy? Keep in mind Apple has unprecedented resources so not easy is not really a problem for them, as Musk pointed out recently they've hired thousands of people to work on this. Also I think it has been done to some extent, Tesla's Model S is now (by some measures) the bestselling luxury car, and can probably be credited with accelerating BMW and Porsche moving towards all-electric vehicles.

by vlehto 11y ago

Retric 11y ago

Samsung's smartphone profits are tanking fast. Sure, Google saved them in the short term, but in the consumer electronic industry over the long term you really need to be a good software company or your margins are going to end up paper thin.

vlehto 11y ago
But Samsung is still making profit. Samsung smartphone market share has been growing and Apple going down. No wonder you get fat profits for a while, if you overprice your products. But customers seem to be catching up.
- Retric 11y ago
  Samsung's smartphone profits are ~1/2 what they where a few years ago and it's ~1/5th Apples even with a much larger and growing market share. Yes, there brand is growing slowly, but being GM and selling more product on paper thin margins is risky should the market change in any way or a slightly more efficient competitor shows up. PS: IMO, Samsung is in the perfect place to work on the software side of things. Sure, it would be expensive, but it's one of the few ways to push actual growth. Otherwise, there going to pull a Dell, ride the growth wave and then shrink as growth stalls.
femto113 11y ago
I think if there's one thing Ford should be afraid of from Apple it's not taking marketshare, it's taking profit share. Apple has carved out exactly that slice of the the smartphone market where you can make a profit, and left everyone else to fight over the no-margin remainder. Apple could conceivably do something similar in cars by building one or two models that compete directly with the most profitable cars (though it seems that all of Ford's profits actually come from big trucks--hard to imagine someone hauling a half-ton of manure in the back their rose gold Apple Pickup). [1] http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/30/ford-f-150-profit-per-vehicle/ http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/30/ford-f-150-profit-per-veh...
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
  > Apple could conceivably do something similar in cars by building one or two models that compete directly with the most profitable cars If it were that easy, why hasn't anybody done it?
  - femto113 11y ago
    Because it is actually not easy? Keep in mind Apple has unprecedented resources so not easy is not really a problem for them, as Musk pointed out recently they've hired thousands of people to work on this. Also I think it has been done to some extent, Tesla's Model S is now (by some measures) the bestselling luxury car, and can probably be credited with accelerating BMW and Porsche moving towards all-electric vehicles.