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> Facebook needs mobile, which means they need Apple more than Apple needs them. Is that actually true? Last time I checked iPhone only had a 20% market share.

by ascar 8y ago

> Facebook needs mobile, which means they need Apple more than Apple needs them. Is that actually true? Last time I checked iPhone only had a 20% market share. People buy phones, including iPhones, to do stuff with them. What Facebook provides is the stuff a huge part of the users want to do with their phone. Imagine iPhone users can no longer WhatsApp/FB-messanger with their Android using friends. How many people will think twice before buying an iPhone again? Facebook screws with privacy the users don't care about (yes, the average user doesn't give a shit, especially if he gets paid), while Apple would screw with the users apps, which they care about a lot! Apple is in the disadvantage here. Especially since their whole business model is a better user experience for overpriced hardware.

ardy42 8y ago
>> Facebook needs mobile, which means they need Apple more than Apple needs them. > Is that actually true? Last time I checked iPhone only had a 20% market share. But it's a relatively premium market segment that Facebook can't afford to lose. If they cede it, they're taking a serious risk that a serious competitor could emerge on the platform that turns them into the next MySpace. That 20% could pull the rest of the market its way, since whatever they migrate to would likely be available on all platforms. This isn't a far-fetched idea. It's basically what Facebook did with it's initial rollout exclusively to the Ivy League schools. > Imagine iPhone users can no longer WhatsApp/FB-messanger with their Android using friends. How many people will think twice before buying an iPhone again? That might have been true five years ago, but Facebook's products are much less compelling now, for a whole host of reasons. Cross-platform replacements would quickly emerge to fill the niches Facebook was driven out of. Many people would get mad about not having Facebook on their phone, but most of them would get over it. But others are already primed to abandon Facebook, they're just waiting for a push. > Apple is in the disadvantage here. No, Facebook is, since their dominance of social netoworking is so tenuous that they need to convince people to use spy-VPNs to stay on top of emerging competitors.
- laurentl 8y ago
  > Cross-platform replacements would quickly emerge For messaging, one could argue that it already exists: Signal (which has already benefited from FB’s announcement that they collect WhatsApp)

by ascar 8y ago

ardy42 8y ago

>> Facebook needs mobile, which means they need Apple more than Apple needs them. > Is that actually true? Last time I checked iPhone only had a 20% market share. But it's a relatively premium market segment that Facebook can't afford to lose. If they cede it, they're taking a serious risk that a serious competitor could emerge on the platform that turns them into the next MySpace. That 20% could pull the rest of the market its way, since whatever they migrate to would likely be available on all platforms. This isn't a far-fetched idea. It's basically what Facebook did with it's initial rollout exclusively to the Ivy League schools. > Imagine iPhone users can no longer WhatsApp/FB-messanger with their Android using friends. How many people will think twice before buying an iPhone again? That might have been true five years ago, but Facebook's products are much less compelling now, for a whole host of reasons. Cross-platform replacements would quickly emerge to fill the niches Facebook was driven out of. Many people would get mad about not having Facebook on their phone, but most of them would get over it. But others are already primed to abandon Facebook, they're just waiting for a push. > Apple is in the disadvantage here. No, Facebook is, since their dominance of social netoworking is so tenuous that they need to convince people to use spy-VPNs to stay on top of emerging competitors.

laurentl 8y ago
> Cross-platform replacements would quickly emerge For messaging, one could argue that it already exists: Signal (which has already benefited from FB’s announcement that they collect WhatsApp)