5 ms·
Even at the height of Microsoft's reign, you could still walk into a shop and buy a Mac. Just sayin'.
by 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 agoApple 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 agoApple 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 agoThose 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.
- Gibbon 16y agoYeah I was referring to the smartphone market rather than the mobile market. Smartphones aren't expected to reach 50% mobile market share until Q3 2011.
- semanticist 16y agoThe numbers I mentioned are specifically for the smartphone market - 'Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 1Q10 (Thousands of Units)'. Most people on HN have a really poor understanding of the global market. The US leaders are not the world leaders in the mobile space.