3 ms·

Apple is the new Microsoft in 2017

gcb0 9y ago
you're ten years late. apple is the old Microsoft (everyone uses and aren't even aware of alternatives. standard office equipment. acquires everyone and takes a decade to market what they bought. embrace extend extinguish.) Microsoft is the the old IBM (very big corporations) Google is the old apple. (some niche stuff, extremely greedy and evil and hellbent into lock-in tactics, but with tons of fanboys)
- Myrmornis 9y ago
  Your comment about everyone using Apple is accurate only for certain wealthy and highly educated subsets of certain western nations.
  - StudentStuff 9y ago
    This same subset is where Microsoft made its bread and butter for two decades, and still continues to earn a pretty penny.
  - alwillis 9y ago
    That’s changing; from the last quarterly report transcript:[1] During the quarter we sold 46.7 million iPhones, up 3 percent over last year. We were very pleased to see double digit iPhone growth in many emerging markets, including mainland China, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, India, and Mexico. They report stuff like this every quarter. [1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/02/apple-q4-2017-earnings-call-transcript/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/02/apple-q4-2017-earnings-...
    - Myrmornis 9y ago
      Yes, this thread is about laptops though, not phones.
- sidlls 9y ago
  This is completely inaccurate, and such a Bay Area/HN bubble view. Apple's most popular devices, phones and tablets, are dwarfed by Android. Their laptops and desktops might have a 5% market share. Even among the much smaller developer community the majority of development doesn't occur on Mac.
  - alwillis 9y ago
    Apple's most popular devices, phones and tablets, are dwarfed by Android. You’re making the classic mistake regarding Apple: marketshare. It’s mostly a vanity metric to avoid looking at other, more relevant issues. In 2016, the iPhone captured 79 percent of global smartphone profits—$44.9 of $53.7 billion.[1] And that’s with only 14.5 percent of the global marketshare, although they do have 35 percent of the U.S. market[2] Since 2007, Apple has sold over 1.2 billion iPhones singlehandedly; it has to be the single best selling electronic device ever. Once you get past Samsung, there’s a bunch of companies selling Android phones who are around breakeven at best. Their laptops and desktops might have a 5% market share. Even among the much smaller developer community the majority of development doesn't occur on Mac. According to statcounter, the Mac’s U.S. marketshare is 11%.[3] If you were to track the market for desktops and laptops that aren’t encased in plastic, don’t ship with crapware and malware, the Mac’ marketshare is much higher. ;-) Anecdotally, I can tell you as someone who’s fairly active in the tech scene in the Cambridge/Boston area, Macs are everywhere, especially at startups: foosball table, craft beer, MacBook Pros. Back in the day, MIT’s Sloan School of Business did not support Macs. (I worked at MIT for 14 years until 2007). Back then, they had deals with Dell and for ThinkPads. Fast forward to the present day: the most common MBA these days at Sloan is the MacBook Air. Even after all of these years, the Mac just had its best quarter ever—a little over $25 billion in revenue.[4] And apparently the Apple Watch is the best selling watch of any kind—in the world. Meanwhile, every company that was supposed to be the Apple killer—Nokia, Motorola, Dell, Microsoft, Blackberry (née RIM), etc. are either gone or are just shadows of their former selves. Remember when Steve Balmer laughed when asked about the iPhone in 2007? [1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/07/apple-global-smartphone-profit-2016-79/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/07/apple-global-smartphone... [2]: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/13/ios-and-samsung-market-share-now-tied-in-the-u-s/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/13/ios-and-samsung-market-sha... [3]: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-states-of-america http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-states-... [4]: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/5378826958x0x962680/D18FAEFF-460A-4168-993D-A60CBA8ED209/_10-K_2017_As-Filed_.pdf http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/5378826958x0x962...
hawski 9y ago
Apple is the same faceless corporation as any other.

gcb0 9y ago

you're ten years late. apple is the old Microsoft (everyone uses and aren't even aware of alternatives. standard office equipment. acquires everyone and takes a decade to market what they bought. embrace extend extinguish.) Microsoft is the the old IBM (very big corporations) Google is the old apple. (some niche stuff, extremely greedy and evil and hellbent into lock-in tactics, but with tons of fanboys)

Myrmornis 9y ago
Your comment about everyone using Apple is accurate only for certain wealthy and highly educated subsets of certain western nations.
- StudentStuff 9y ago
  This same subset is where Microsoft made its bread and butter for two decades, and still continues to earn a pretty penny.
- alwillis 9y ago
  That’s changing; from the last quarterly report transcript:[1] During the quarter we sold 46.7 million iPhones, up 3 percent over last year. We were very pleased to see double digit iPhone growth in many emerging markets, including mainland China, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, India, and Mexico. They report stuff like this every quarter. [1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/02/apple-q4-2017-earnings-call-transcript/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/02/apple-q4-2017-earnings-...
  - Myrmornis 9y ago
    Yes, this thread is about laptops though, not phones.
sidlls 9y ago
This is completely inaccurate, and such a Bay Area/HN bubble view. Apple's most popular devices, phones and tablets, are dwarfed by Android. Their laptops and desktops might have a 5% market share. Even among the much smaller developer community the majority of development doesn't occur on Mac.
- alwillis 9y ago
  Apple's most popular devices, phones and tablets, are dwarfed by Android. You’re making the classic mistake regarding Apple: marketshare. It’s mostly a vanity metric to avoid looking at other, more relevant issues. In 2016, the iPhone captured 79 percent of global smartphone profits—$44.9 of $53.7 billion.[1] And that’s with only 14.5 percent of the global marketshare, although they do have 35 percent of the U.S. market[2] Since 2007, Apple has sold over 1.2 billion iPhones singlehandedly; it has to be the single best selling electronic device ever. Once you get past Samsung, there’s a bunch of companies selling Android phones who are around breakeven at best. Their laptops and desktops might have a 5% market share. Even among the much smaller developer community the majority of development doesn't occur on Mac. According to statcounter, the Mac’s U.S. marketshare is 11%.[3] If you were to track the market for desktops and laptops that aren’t encased in plastic, don’t ship with crapware and malware, the Mac’ marketshare is much higher. ;-) Anecdotally, I can tell you as someone who’s fairly active in the tech scene in the Cambridge/Boston area, Macs are everywhere, especially at startups: foosball table, craft beer, MacBook Pros. Back in the day, MIT’s Sloan School of Business did not support Macs. (I worked at MIT for 14 years until 2007). Back then, they had deals with Dell and for ThinkPads. Fast forward to the present day: the most common MBA these days at Sloan is the MacBook Air. Even after all of these years, the Mac just had its best quarter ever—a little over $25 billion in revenue.[4] And apparently the Apple Watch is the best selling watch of any kind—in the world. Meanwhile, every company that was supposed to be the Apple killer—Nokia, Motorola, Dell, Microsoft, Blackberry (née RIM), etc. are either gone or are just shadows of their former selves. Remember when Steve Balmer laughed when asked about the iPhone in 2007? [1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/07/apple-global-smartphone-profit-2016-79/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/03/07/apple-global-smartphone... [2]: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/13/ios-and-samsung-market-share-now-tied-in-the-u-s/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/13/ios-and-samsung-market-sha... [3]: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-states-of-america http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/all/united-states-... [4]: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/5378826958x0x962680/D18FAEFF-460A-4168-993D-A60CBA8ED209/_10-K_2017_As-Filed_.pdf http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/5378826958x0x962...

hawski 9y ago

Apple is the same faceless corporation as any other.