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> None of that lock-in exists in China: Apple may be a de facto monopolist for most of the world, but in China the company is simply another smartphone vendor,

> None of that lock-in exists in China: Apple may be a de facto monopolist for most of the world, but in China the company is simply another smartphone vendor, and being simply another smartphone vendor is a hazardous place to be. Don't get that part. I live in Europe and sure a lot of people has an iPhone but I believe strongly that more people have an Android. Doesn't Android have like 80% or more of the world market? http://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/os http://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/os

macintux 9y ago
He's not saying that Apple has a monopoly on smartphones; he's saying it has a monopoly on iOS. His overall point is that while iOS has a strong lock-in effect for people already on the platform, in China the real platform is WeChat, so the iOS monopoly isn't as useful.
- dilemma 9y ago
  No, he is saying that Apple has a smartphone monopoly in the quoted paragraph.
  - gvb 9y ago
    First sentence of paragraph two states the premise of the article: "...the company has a monopoly on not just MacOS but even more importantly iOS." The article does not assert that Apple has a monopoly on smartphones.
  - mikhailt 9y ago
    From the beginning of the article, which defines the rest of the them: > Moreover, the advantages go beyond margins: the best way to understand both Apple’s profits and many of its choices is to understand that the company has a monopoly on not just MacOS but even more importantly iOS. That means Apple can not only capture consumer surplus on hardware, but developer surplus when it comes to app sales; that some apps are not made is deadweight loss that Apple has chosen to bear to ensure total control.
oblio 9y ago
It does and you're right. But on English speaking websites the majority of users will be Americans, unless the sites have a very specific, localized audience (say, an Australian or Canadian newspaper). As a result many news will focus the American audience. One quick way to check this is to look for specific cues, for example: "the President" instead of "the U.S. president", "the nation" instead of "the American nation", etc.
marktangotango 9y ago
The article contradicts itself; it says there's a problem, but in the long term, that iphone being 'status conferring' will ultimately prevail, meaning nullify the "problem", not become dominant necessarily: > iPhone users very rarely switch to Android, while a fair number of Android users switch to iPhone, which means that even in a saturated market Apple’s share should grow over time. > And to be sure, an iPhone is still status-conferring: Apple is by no means doomed, and it’s possible those China numbers will turn positive this fall.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- thogenhaven 9y ago
  Isnt the first point about Apple's global marketshare, and the second about China in particular?
- valuearb 9y ago
  If you think status is why Apple succeeds, you don't really understand the PC or smartphone markets.
  - panzer_wyrm 9y ago
    For apple to succeed they have to actually make good devices. There comes a breaking point at which platform is abandoned en masse. Lets call it the lotus excel inflection. Or myspace facebook. While apple had the best hardware untill 2014 I feel they are slipping behind. Two more generations and the iphone system dying overnight is not unthinkable if they dig deeper into mediocrity.
    - valuearb 9y ago
      I agree with this. Their entire business model is built on providing a premium experience and value to customers who value that. If customers don't see premium value from their devices, the brand will be tarnished and customers will leave. But so far I only see it happening in Macs.
Devid2014 9y ago
"Apple may be a de facto monopolist for most of the world" May this is how some peoples from USA see Apple ? But here in EU Apple is just another smartphone vendor and most peoples are using Android.
- johncolanduoni 9y ago
  AFAICT they're not a monopoly here either; most of the numbers I see are in the neighborhood of 40%.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    Monopoly isn't defined by marketshare in some descriptive category, it's defined by market (pricing) power. If you have that's you have a monopoly (which makes sense, because that means that even if there are participants in the same descriptive category, you empirically are not competing with them for sales.)
- archvile 9y ago
  Even in the US they are less than 50% smartphone marketshare, and about 10% desktop/laptop marketshare - hardly a monopoly. They just have huge profit margins which explains their buckets of cash.
- mikhailt 9y ago
  From the very beginning, it is clear what the author was talking about: > Moreover, the advantages go beyond margins: the best way to understand both Apple’s profits and many of its choices is to understand that the company has a monopoly on not just MacOS but even more importantly iOS. That means Apple can not only capture consumer surplus on hardware, but developer surplus when it comes to app sales; that some apps are not made is deadweight loss that Apple has chosen to bear to ensure total control.
- valuearb 9y ago
  Let me know when you can buy an iPhone from a different manufacturer. Again, author said Apple has a monopoly on iOS, not smartphones. That iOS monopoly takes about 80% of all the profits from the smartphone market worldwide, BTW.
odiroot 9y ago
In my country of origin (Poland) Apple devices are niche. In Germany, where are reside they're indeed just another smartphone vendor, mostly for casual users.
imron 9y ago
> but I believe strongly that more people have an Android. If you go by people, Android has more market share. If you go by profit, iOS has more market share. https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/07/apple-global-smartphone-profit-2016-79/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/07/apple-global-smartphone... > None of that lock-in exists in China This is true. If all your friends and family use iMessage and PhotoStream, then once you start using that too it creates lock-in specifically tied to software that only runs on Apple devices. As an example, all my family use iPhones. We use PhotoStream to share pictures of family events and children and the like. If I were to switch to Android then I would lose all of that interaction, and so it's a big driver in keeping me (and other family members) on iOS. Contrast this with China, where even on Apple devices, people generally use WeChat for doing that, rather than the Apple equivalent. WeChat also runs on Android and so you can happily switch platforms and you'll still have access to your same WeChat account with everything there.
- naskwo 9y ago
  Try www.famipix.com - we'll be launching a React Native app (iOS & Android) soon, for platform-independent, no BS photo sharing.
  - sortaThrowaway 9y ago
    from your page: >No facial recognition. No public search. >We do not index faces nor do we allow external search engines >to index your photos. might move that up to #2 point. add in no creepy facebook like face features storing (worded better) to drive home the point
  - imron 9y ago
    The problem is that so many photo providers have started up and shut down (or been shutdown after acquisition) that it requires a huge deal of trust to switch to another provider. I can see from your site you've been around for a long time, but that still doesn't help ward of fears about future acquisition. And even if you could convince me, then you'd also need to convince all my family to pay for something that they currently get for free. The lock-is effect for Apple products is strong. That said, after looking at your site, I'll definitely keep you guys tucked away in the back of my mind if I ever decide to move of iOS.
valuearb 9y ago
It's been estimated that Apple makes 70-80% of the profits in the smartphone space. Android/Samsung sell huge volumes of really cheap phones, the users of those phones don't tend to spend money on apps, or content, or anything. Apple only sells premium phones and dominates the premium segment, iOS users still spend more on apps than all of the far more numerous android users combined.

macintux 9y ago

He's not saying that Apple has a monopoly on smartphones; he's saying it has a monopoly on iOS. His overall point is that while iOS has a strong lock-in effect for people already on the platform, in China the real platform is WeChat, so the iOS monopoly isn't as useful.

dilemma 9y ago
No, he is saying that Apple has a smartphone monopoly in the quoted paragraph.
- gvb 9y ago
  First sentence of paragraph two states the premise of the article: "...the company has a monopoly on not just MacOS but even more importantly iOS." The article does not assert that Apple has a monopoly on smartphones.
- mikhailt 9y ago
  From the beginning of the article, which defines the rest of the them: > Moreover, the advantages go beyond margins: the best way to understand both Apple’s profits and many of its choices is to understand that the company has a monopoly on not just MacOS but even more importantly iOS. That means Apple can not only capture consumer surplus on hardware, but developer surplus when it comes to app sales; that some apps are not made is deadweight loss that Apple has chosen to bear to ensure total control.

oblio 9y ago

It does and you're right. But on English speaking websites the majority of users will be Americans, unless the sites have a very specific, localized audience (say, an Australian or Canadian newspaper). As a result many news will focus the American audience. One quick way to check this is to look for specific cues, for example: "the President" instead of "the U.S. president", "the nation" instead of "the American nation", etc.

marktangotango 9y ago

The article contradicts itself; it says there's a problem, but in the long term, that iphone being 'status conferring' will ultimately prevail, meaning nullify the "problem", not become dominant necessarily: > iPhone users very rarely switch to Android, while a fair number of Android users switch to iPhone, which means that even in a saturated market Apple’s share should grow over time. > And to be sure, an iPhone is still status-conferring: Apple is by no means doomed, and it’s possible those China numbers will turn positive this fall.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
thogenhaven 9y ago
Isnt the first point about Apple's global marketshare, and the second about China in particular?
valuearb 9y ago
If you think status is why Apple succeeds, you don't really understand the PC or smartphone markets.
- panzer_wyrm 9y ago
  For apple to succeed they have to actually make good devices. There comes a breaking point at which platform is abandoned en masse. Lets call it the lotus excel inflection. Or myspace facebook. While apple had the best hardware untill 2014 I feel they are slipping behind. Two more generations and the iphone system dying overnight is not unthinkable if they dig deeper into mediocrity.
  - valuearb 9y ago
    I agree with this. Their entire business model is built on providing a premium experience and value to customers who value that. If customers don't see premium value from their devices, the brand will be tarnished and customers will leave. But so far I only see it happening in Macs.

Devid2014 9y ago

"Apple may be a de facto monopolist for most of the world" May this is how some peoples from USA see Apple ? But here in EU Apple is just another smartphone vendor and most peoples are using Android.

johncolanduoni 9y ago
AFAICT they're not a monopoly here either; most of the numbers I see are in the neighborhood of 40%.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  Monopoly isn't defined by marketshare in some descriptive category, it's defined by market (pricing) power. If you have that's you have a monopoly (which makes sense, because that means that even if there are participants in the same descriptive category, you empirically are not competing with them for sales.)
archvile 9y ago
Even in the US they are less than 50% smartphone marketshare, and about 10% desktop/laptop marketshare - hardly a monopoly. They just have huge profit margins which explains their buckets of cash.
mikhailt 9y ago
From the very beginning, it is clear what the author was talking about: > Moreover, the advantages go beyond margins: the best way to understand both Apple’s profits and many of its choices is to understand that the company has a monopoly on not just MacOS but even more importantly iOS. That means Apple can not only capture consumer surplus on hardware, but developer surplus when it comes to app sales; that some apps are not made is deadweight loss that Apple has chosen to bear to ensure total control.
valuearb 9y ago
Let me know when you can buy an iPhone from a different manufacturer. Again, author said Apple has a monopoly on iOS, not smartphones. That iOS monopoly takes about 80% of all the profits from the smartphone market worldwide, BTW.

odiroot 9y ago

In my country of origin (Poland) Apple devices are niche. In Germany, where are reside they're indeed just another smartphone vendor, mostly for casual users.

imron 9y ago

> but I believe strongly that more people have an Android. If you go by people, Android has more market share. If you go by profit, iOS has more market share. https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/07/apple-global-smartphone-profit-2016-79/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/07/apple-global-smartphone... > None of that lock-in exists in China This is true. If all your friends and family use iMessage and PhotoStream, then once you start using that too it creates lock-in specifically tied to software that only runs on Apple devices. As an example, all my family use iPhones. We use PhotoStream to share pictures of family events and children and the like. If I were to switch to Android then I would lose all of that interaction, and so it's a big driver in keeping me (and other family members) on iOS. Contrast this with China, where even on Apple devices, people generally use WeChat for doing that, rather than the Apple equivalent. WeChat also runs on Android and so you can happily switch platforms and you'll still have access to your same WeChat account with everything there.

naskwo 9y ago
Try www.famipix.com - we'll be launching a React Native app (iOS & Android) soon, for platform-independent, no BS photo sharing.
- sortaThrowaway 9y ago
  from your page: >No facial recognition. No public search. >We do not index faces nor do we allow external search engines >to index your photos. might move that up to #2 point. add in no creepy facebook like face features storing (worded better) to drive home the point
- imron 9y ago
  The problem is that so many photo providers have started up and shut down (or been shutdown after acquisition) that it requires a huge deal of trust to switch to another provider. I can see from your site you've been around for a long time, but that still doesn't help ward of fears about future acquisition. And even if you could convince me, then you'd also need to convince all my family to pay for something that they currently get for free. The lock-is effect for Apple products is strong. That said, after looking at your site, I'll definitely keep you guys tucked away in the back of my mind if I ever decide to move of iOS.

valuearb 9y ago

It's been estimated that Apple makes 70-80% of the profits in the smartphone space. Android/Samsung sell huge volumes of really cheap phones, the users of those phones don't tend to spend money on apps, or content, or anything. Apple only sells premium phones and dominates the premium segment, iOS users still spend more on apps than all of the far more numerous android users combined.