2 ms·
You only need enough volume to compete. If that lets you command a premium and skim off the bulk of the profits, who cares about marketshare? It turns out you
by xenadu02 10y ago
You only need enough volume to compete. If that lets you command a premium and skim off the bulk of the profits, who cares about marketshare?
It turns out you can enjoy network effects as well: at one point iPods accounted for over half of the global flash memory market. That was surely useful in bringing the iPhone and MacBook Air to market, no? I'd also say the PA Semi investment is paying off since Apple has owned the mobile SoC performance crown for a while now, with no competition in sight.
- ethbro 10y agoI agree the "sufficiently large" scale argument is probably valid, for both developer attraction and component pricing. But high margins without a monopoly is a tough course to chart indefinitely. I think if Apple is still the incredible player it is in another 30 years, it'll probably be because they've integrated cloud accounts + hardware + security to the extent user abandonment of their platform is almost unheard of. PS: Surprised no one pointed out my incorrect Apple ticker *AAPL