4 ms·
Apple's stunningly huge opportunity - steal Android market share.
It's an old theme, and has always been rejected firmly by Apple, but image if iOS was totally free for all phone manufacturers to put on their own phones.
Ruthlessly quality controlled by Apple to ensure binary compatibility across all iOS compatible phones.
Ruthlessly legally controlled by Apple to ensure manufacturers cannot install their own customizations and crapware.
Ruthlessly controlled by Apple to ensure it retains control over the operating system update process.
Ruthlessly controlled by Apple to ensure there continues to be one and only one Apple app store.
Surely for Apple growth into the future comes from owning the customer and selling services via iTunes and the app store. The only way to do this is through greater market share. The easiest and perhaps only way to steal market share from Android is to give iOS away free to the Android manufacturers.
People don't need new phone hardware so often these days so why should Apple be so stuck on selling the hardware? Time for Tim to start stealing the Android market share.
- slater 10y agoLooks like someone wasn't around for the PowerPC clone idea of the 90s! :D
- hoodoof 10y agoIndeed I was but it ain't the 90's any more. In the 90's there was not a huge revenue stream to be had from selling services such as music, games and apps. It's a different world.
- bobajeff 10y agoHuge compared to selling phones? No. That's not the case for the App Store or Google Play. Hell even selling physical media can't compete with what Apple makes in hardware. Just look at Sony.
- throwaway_374 10y agoThe most radical coup would be to offer a free handset (cost near $200 per user + ~$600 lost revenue opportunity * likelihood of future purchase + lost future handset revenue - potential future purchases from becoming a fanboy) to aggressively wipe out marketshare, though the final outcome may not be favourable for innovation. Considering Facebook paid $50 per snapchat user I wonder how the sums add up.
- towndrunk 10y agoApple is a hardware company... why would they want to be in the software business?
- ljsocal 10y agoOne big reason Apple is so much larger and more profitable than other tech companies (hell, all companies!) is that they are vertically integrated. This is an expensive business model and it leaves a lot of near-term opportunity (like seizing Android market share through OS licensing) on the table. If you want to build a bullet-proof business, follow Apple's lead.
- MaysonL 10y agoIt seems to me that it would make a lot more sense for Apple to allow other companies to buy Ax chips, assuming that they priced them well (somewhat higher than Qualcomm etc.).