5 ms·

He's not talking about desktops: Apple still has tiny (but growing) market share there. He's talking about mobile platforms. Microsoft is very much the underdo

by jomohke 16y ago

He's not talking about desktops: Apple still has tiny (but growing) market share there. He's talking about mobile platforms. Microsoft is very much the underdog after ignoring the platform for so long. Apple had a monopoly over good smartphones by beating everyone to market by such a large margin, though it's hard to call them a monopoly now that Android has been selling so well.

guywithabike 16y ago
Agreed. A better assertion might be that Apple has a monopoly on revenues in the mobile space.
- houseabsolute 16y ago
  But that would still be a terrible assertion since many other companies are generating a lot of revenue in the space. You might more properly be able to say that they have a monopoly on profits in the space, but that would be an ill-formed claim because "profits in a sector" are not a valid parameter for monopoly, except in the colloquial sense.
spoondan 16y ago
Winning a particular market segment does not a monopoly make.
- blantonl 16y ago
  unless that particular market segment is making a market.
- _delirium 16y ago
  I thought that was the definition of a monopoly? I mean, Standard Oil didn't own the coal market, but they were still a monopoly, because they did own the oil market.
  - semanticist 16y ago
    Apple could only have a monopoly in the mobile market if I couldn't walk into a shop and buy a competing product. In fact, if I walk into a mobile phone shop, I've overwhelmed with competing products and can hardly see the iPhone.
    - gloob 16y ago
      Even at the height of Microsoft's reign, you could still walk into a shop and buy a Mac. Just sayin'.
      - semanticist 16y ago
        Apple don't have a majority of the smartphone market, let alone the mobile phone market in general. Windows had a market share of over 90%. Five years ago you could have made an argument for Symbian being the Evil Monopoly in this market, but Apple/iOS has never been anything like a monopoly. People seem to confuse control over one device with an actual monopoly. They're not even remotely the same thing.
        Gibbon 16y ago
        Apple doesn't even lead the smartphone market (yet), RIM does. I'm sure they will catch up quick but RIM had 40% of the market last time I checked and Apple had 25%. They have 90% of the mp3 market and 75% of the mp3 player market but that's still not a monopoly. The only thing they could be accused of is a monopoly on non-crappy web apps. Pretty amusing.
        semanticist 16y ago
        Those figures might be true only for the US/North America, but worldwide Symbian has almost 45%, RIM a little under 20%, iPhone just over 15%, and Android just under 10%. (As of Q1, 2010, pre-iPhone 4, source: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1372013 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1372013) No one seems to mind their MP3 player monopoly because the iPod was so much better than the alternatives.
altano 16y ago
Actually OSX's market share peaked with the debut of Win7 and has been declining since. Your point stands, though.
- altano 16y ago
  Eek, I see several people don't believe me. Here are a bunch of sources: http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UTF-8&client=safari&q=os+x+market+share&hl=en&tbs=cdr%3A1&site=universal&cd_min=8%2F1%2F2010&cd_max=9%2F1%2F2010 http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UTF-8&client=safari&#3...

by jomohke 16y ago

guywithabike 16y ago

Agreed. A better assertion might be that Apple has a monopoly on revenues in the mobile space.

houseabsolute 16y ago
But that would still be a terrible assertion since many other companies are generating a lot of revenue in the space. You might more properly be able to say that they have a monopoly on profits in the space, but that would be an ill-formed claim because "profits in a sector" are not a valid parameter for monopoly, except in the colloquial sense.

spoondan 16y ago

Winning a particular market segment does not a monopoly make.

blantonl 16y ago
unless that particular market segment is making a market.
_delirium 16y ago
I thought that was the definition of a monopoly? I mean, Standard Oil didn't own the coal market, but they were still a monopoly, because they did own the oil market.
- semanticist 16y ago
  Apple could only have a monopoly in the mobile market if I couldn't walk into a shop and buy a competing product. In fact, if I walk into a mobile phone shop, I've overwhelmed with competing products and can hardly see the iPhone.
  - gloob 16y ago
    Even at the height of Microsoft's reign, you could still walk into a shop and buy a Mac. Just sayin'.
    - semanticist 16y ago
      Apple don't have a majority of the smartphone market, let alone the mobile phone market in general. Windows had a market share of over 90%. Five years ago you could have made an argument for Symbian being the Evil Monopoly in this market, but Apple/iOS has never been anything like a monopoly. People seem to confuse control over one device with an actual monopoly. They're not even remotely the same thing.
      - Gibbon 16y ago
        Apple doesn't even lead the smartphone market (yet), RIM does. I'm sure they will catch up quick but RIM had 40% of the market last time I checked and Apple had 25%. They have 90% of the mp3 market and 75% of the mp3 player market but that's still not a monopoly. The only thing they could be accused of is a monopoly on non-crappy web apps. Pretty amusing.
        semanticist 16y ago
        Those figures might be true only for the US/North America, but worldwide Symbian has almost 45%, RIM a little under 20%, iPhone just over 15%, and Android just under 10%. (As of Q1, 2010, pre-iPhone 4, source: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1372013 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1372013) No one seems to mind their MP3 player monopoly because the iPod was so much better than the alternatives.

altano 16y ago

Actually OSX's market share peaked with the debut of Win7 and has been declining since. Your point stands, though.

altano 16y ago
Eek, I see several people don't believe me. Here are a bunch of sources: http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UTF-8&client=safari&q=os+x+market+share&hl=en&tbs=cdr%3A1&site=universal&cd_min=8%2F1%2F2010&cd_max=9%2F1%2F2010 http://www.google.com/m/search?oe=UTF-8&client=safari&#3...