8 ms·

Illustrated: Apple's Fear of Android

120 points by ukdm 15y ago

Derbasti 15y ago
I don't see Apple being fearful to be honest. They are still growing like crazy and they are serving a somewhat different market than Android is. You simply don't buy an iPhone because you want 'some phone'. This is not to say that an iPhone is better than some Android phone, but this is certainly perceived to be something different than 'the rest' by most of my friends and colleagues.
- tomjen3 15y ago
  Maybe your friends and colleagues but that isn't universal -- indeed I much prefer my HTC.
  - arethuza 15y ago
    The best Android devices may be as good or even better than the best iPhones but the worst Android devices are much worse than any Apple device has ever been. I say this as the not-very-proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy Europa in addition to my iPhone and iPad.
    - tallanvor 15y ago
      Really? The Newton was pretty darn bad!
      - arethuza 15y ago
        Good point. I meant recent Apple devices :-)
    - hypotguy 15y ago
      The Samsung Galaxy Europa is cheapest entry level Android phone I've seen - where I'm from the i5500 can be picked up for about €70-100. I have one and it cost 1/5 that of an iPhone and is a pretty competent Android phone. For the price it's great value in my opinion and as far as I'm aware Apple makes nothing in that price range so I can't see how you can make any sort of comparison.
      - arethuza 15y ago
        YMMV Note that I am not comparing it directly to my iPhone but to the previous Samsung non-smart phone I had which I lost, which was just a basic phone. I'd honestly rather have a basic non-Android phone than the Galaxy Europa.
- trezor 15y ago
  I work in software development. Almost everyone in my department has Android-phones bar a few self-confessed iAddicts (and one daring Windows phone 7 beta-tester). Despite its huge commercial success, the iPhone is among my peers considered a rather lulzy thing and a the undisputed weakest and least sophisticated of all the mobile platforms when measured on its own merits. Not saying this is absolute truth either, but it certainly shows that your comment about what "most" people might think certainly doesn't ring true universally.
  - MrScruff 15y ago
    I also work in software development. Among my colleagues there are a mix of iPhone & Android users, but the divide seems primarily related to cost with the juniors much more likely to own Android. I've played with a few Android devices and they're ok but to be honest, the whole thing seems to be playing out just like 90s Mac vs Windows, with Android users insisting iOS is a toy and iOS users berating Androids unpolished interface. For me it always boils down to the same thing, if you're willing to accept the constraints imposed by the products designer, Apple stuff is the best out there. > the undisputed weakest and least sophisticated of all the mobile platforms when measured on its own merits This is fairly obviously not true. The iOS SDK is still widely considered the benchmark for people that work cross platform. It doesn't really matter that your developer friends think on the relatively technical merits if they're no more informed than the average Android user.
    - trezor 15y ago
      Just replying to say how you are confirming my point either you intend to or not: What people think about different things differ, and there is no "universal" consensus about most things. Like there is no universal consensus on the iPhone being "better" than its Android rivals. I guess we somehow agree even though we seemingly don't.
  - white_devil 15y ago
    the undisputed weakest and least sophisticated of all the mobile platforms when measured on its own merits. Oh my fucking God, please. I wasn't sure before, but you just outed yourself as a huge Google -fanboy. Yeah what's Apple's platform got going for it? -It just changed the whole industry and showed How It's Done. It's also regarded as technically very solid, and pleasant to develop for.
- jokermatt999 15y ago
  They are serving a different market, and I've seen less demand since Android came out. I know at least a dozen people who have Android phones (that are quite happy with them) off the top of my head, and I can only think of two who own an iPhone. The Android people don't want iPhones, but the iPhone people look jealously at Androids. This isn't a "techy" group either, it's mostly regular 20-somethings.
jordanroher 15y ago
Except Apple doesn't seem to care about achieving huge market share for the iPhone. They care about money, and by delaying the iPhone 5 they've managed to make even more money than usual. It must be habit that we go for the market share argument so often. A corporation's responsibility to its shareholders isn't to spread its logo across the land like a religion, but to return value (real dollars, not imaginary market share dollars) for their investment. That was slightly more ironic than I intended. Besides, there are plenty of other "hidden" reasons for Apple to sue these Android handset manufacturers. Steve Jobs feels betrayed by Eric Schmidt, Samsung makes eerily close copies of the iPhone, Apple doesn't attack HP and RIM because this isn't about actual patent infringement but taking out the smaller manufacturers who can't defend themselves against Apple Legal.
- illumin8 15y ago
  With a market cap of 23.06 billion, Samsung isn't exactly a small company. I think Apple is going after companies where it believes it has a significant chance of winning. Whether you believe software patents are a bad idea or not (I certainly don't like them), Apple has aggressively patented a lot of key features in iOS and it seems that many Android handsets are infringing.
  - jsnell 15y ago
    Are you sure their market cap is that low? I find it a very hard number to believe.
  - rrrazdan 15y ago
    Well I think your figure is wrong. Samsung is huge. Samsung Electronics has a market cap of 253 trillion won or 240 billion dollars[1]. The group's 2010 revenue was 201 billion dollars or thrice as much as Apple. They aren't big, they are absolutely huge. [1]http://thechinesenewsoflasvegas.com/business/market-cap-of-top-10-group-affiliates-hits-723-trillion-won/ http://thechinesenewsoflasvegas.com/business/market-cap-of-t... [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung
  - fpgeek 15y ago
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
allenp 15y ago
The author makes the mistake of equating market share with revenue - it is quite possible that Apple's 19% market share is makes more for them than Nokia at 24%, or even Nokia at 40%.
- p0ppe 15y ago
  "iPhone share of phone market in Q1: 5% volumes, 20% revenues, 55% profit" - http://www.asymco.com/2011/05/16/iphone-share-of-phone-market-in-q1/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/05/16/iphone-share-of-phone-marke...
  - Synaesthesia 15y ago
    Q2: 66% Profit (!) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820784 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820784
- lojack 15y ago
  The author is arguing potential revenue and not relative revenue. From that point of view a 30% or 40% market share for apple would indeed be more revenue than a 19% market share. If these other companies are growing much faster than Apple, even if they are making less, that's revenue Apple isn't gaining.
MatthewPhillips 15y ago
What I don't get is why they aren't offering choices of different handsets. They offer 4 different versions of the iPod and 1 version of the iPhone. There should be at least 3 iPhones - the standard version, one with a 4.3 or 4.5 inch screen, and one with a slide out keyboard.
- pooriaazimi 15y ago
  That is called fragmentation. It's hard for devs to optimize their apps to look good on different resolutions or aspect ratios. Even making your app to look & work "well" on both portrait and landscape modes is hard (by well I mean pretty, slick and sound).
  - MatthewPhillips 15y ago
    Consumers have chosen fragmentation and rejected sameness. We're never going to live in a world where everyone carries around the same phone with the same resolution and all the same features. Devs, of which I am one, have to conform to reality. Apple and other platform companies have to make it as easy as possible for their developers to create applications that work on multiple resolutions (separate .xibs for iPhone and iPad is not the way), but their #1 concern is their customers, and if their customers want different styles (I think they do) then they should provide them.
  - jff 15y ago
    It's somehow worked out for the incredibly fragmented Android environment. Their method of creating images that specify which parts of themselves can be safely stretched (NinePatch, http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/NinePatch.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/Nine...) is a pretty neat technical aid for that situation.
    - ceejayoz 15y ago
      NinePatch etc. are neat, but break down on complicated design elements.
rimantas 15y ago
There we go again. Market share. Author did not even bother to consider, at whose expense Samsung and HTC are gaining said share. Apple did grow too. Now 47% of their revenue comes from the product which was launched into the market where Apple had zero marked share and was laughed at for even trying. Another 21% comes from product which did not even exist 1.5 years ago. Author did forget to include these graphs: http://www.intomobile.com/2011/05/02/apple-has-50-profit-share-smartphone-makers-cant-hear-haters-behind-huge-wall-cash/ http://www.intomobile.com/2011/05/02/apple-has-50-profit-sha... Yep, Apple should be afraid very afraid.
- anghyflawn 15y ago
  Um, no. He pointed out that as the smartphone market grows (at the expense of feature phones, probably), HTC and Samsung are riding that wave much better. It's not horribly surprising, since Apple's product is not likely to be immediately affordable to many of those switching from feature phones, but as the smartphone (and eventually tablet) market becomes commoditized it is not a given that Apple will be able to successfully uphold their profit margin by charging relatively high premiums for their value proposition. Of course they might do just that, but that is not something we can take for granted.
  - MrScruff 15y ago
    From the article, HTC's market share growth in the given interval was 4%, compared to Apple's 3%. Considering they achieved that growth on significantly lower margins than Apple (and consequently much less revenue growth), I don't think it's reasonable to claim HTC are riding the smartphone market growth much better than Apple. Samsungs 10% growth is more impressive, but again was achieved with much lower margins. Apple could afford to cut their margin significantly if competitive pressure forces their hand, and unlike RIM they have a product which is high demand.
    - anghyflawn 15y ago
      Percent is not the same as percentage points, you know. Growing from 6% to 10% is actually a growth of 66% percent, which sounds much more impressive. Fair point about the margins, but the fact is that Apple's entire business model is built on ensuring their margin stays high by charging large premiums for products that are clearly better than the competition. This is not guaranteed to last forever. The other companies on the other hand are used to living in commoditized markets with razor thin margins. I'm not saying Apple are doomed, but they clearly cannot just write the whole competition off, and they obviously aren't.
S_A_P 15y ago
I think that if apple were concerned about market share, iPhones would be on every carrier, there would be more iOS phones available and the pricing would be more competitive. I think that they are more happy to be a 20-30% market share with a semi premium product than a commoditized less capable product. The reality is that apple will never be able to compete with hardware vendors that crank out good-enough phones with a cheap yet very capable OS on them. I don't think they want commodity products in their line up. I also think that they may feel similarly to what steve jobs said about Microsoft in the 90s. For apple to win, google/android doesn't necessarily have to lose. As for the litigation, I don't know that it is necessarily tied to the fact that android has taken off so well. Like it or not, most hardware vendors use apple as a hardware benchmark, so copying their products is inevitable. I would not want to sit idly while other people make knockoffs of my products either.
- AllenKids 15y ago
  As a almost exclusive Apple product user I am happy with Apple having about 20%-30% market share in major category it is competing as well. (Mac may never reach the goal, but then again as long as it is doing well.) I'm uncomfortable with iPad's share to be honest, it's not healthy.
saturdaysaint 15y ago
Flamebait. Jobs played up the IP that went into the iPhone at its launch and (paraphrasing from memory) vowed to defend it vigorously at the time, well before a single Droid or Galaxy S or iPhone shipped. I'll dig through the WWDC transcript if someone forces me ;). They knew that they'd be copied, presumably by low-cost imitators as their products have always been imitated, and were always prepared to use IP law to defend their advantage. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with this strategy, but Apple saw these market pressures coming a long time ago.
- mrcharles 15y ago
  I recall that as well, but I think this article is still valid, because it speaks to Apple's vigor in enforcing them, as much as anything. I'm not going to say Apple is desperate yet, but I think that Apple foresees that desperation if they don't very actively pursue anything and everything.
  - Loic 15y ago
    For once I totally agree. You must also add, that the vast majority of people are price sensitive and do not really care if they use an Apple, Samsung or HTC device. A lot of people around me bought the iPod (not iPad) because they were the cheapest and nice looking at the same time. Look around you at people having a decent normal job, kids, a house to repay, etc. At the end of the month, not a lot of money left for the high end Apple stuff. These are not even the majority of the people. In Europe, basically you have 30% of the people paying no taxes because no money, 30% with money but in fact nearly nothing left at the end of the month and 30% with extra (here I am generous). The iPhone is selling good in Europe only because it is subsidized by the mobile operators. So, if you continue following this line, this means that at least in Europe, Apple will simply not be able to grow past the 30% mark if not subsidized by the operators. Then you hit the last problem, the iPad is seen as a "big" iPhone by people. They use it in addition to a normal computer and buy it with a contract. Now you have Apple, depending for 60% of their income on hardware which most of the time requires the help of the mobile operators to be sold. This is not an easy position to be in. I do not own any Apple device, but I thank them for what they do, because they drive the general quality of the smart phones up.
hackermom 15y ago
Come on, man. Stop riding around on your inflated high horse. There's no platform war here for you to win, you ridiculous anti-Apple crusader wannabe. These actors all in the same boat, knee-deep in shitty lawsuits coming from all angles. And, remember, Apple fervently stressed the breadth of their IP portfolio of the iPhone long before Android showed up, along with promises to defend it.
tobylane 15y ago
Android's need isn't Apple's fear. Android's need is high market share, Apple's need is user engagement/entertainment (not market, as flash and so on 'badly' prove). Apple do perfectly well with low market share, I wish they wouldn't bother trying getting any further but when you make something so good you can only do so much to keep it out of the hands of some people.
notatoad 15y ago
i'm assuming that the app store revenues are counted as part of the iphone and ipad revenues?
cwp 15y ago
Samsung and HTC aren't eating Apple's lunch, they're eating Nokia's lunch. The author notes that makers of Android phones are gaining market share faster than Apple, and assumes that this will eventually mean taking market share from Apple, but that's far from given.
programminggeek 15y ago
Apple is not afraid of Android any more than Porsche is afraid of Ford. They are targeting effectively two distinct markets. Android doesn't do a great job of competing at the high end of the market outside of tech nerds. Seriously, the one year old iPhone 4 is still outselling even the newer Android phones on Verizon and AT&T. What Android is killing is becoming the default smartphone at every price range with every feature set you can imagine. Android covers all the smartphones that iPhone doesn't. iPhone isn't for everyone, Android tries harder to be. Android is much less focused as a platform than iOS. Android is going to keep working hard to be upmarket, and iOS is going to keep working to go downmarket with prepaid devices, more iPod Touch type devices with 3G or GPS or both. As a developer I just care about getting paid and in my experience people on iOS are more willing to buy my apps. Android users tend to be cheapskates. This can and will change at some point, but Apple is doing better now than they ever have. I doubt they are truly afraid of much right now. They are executing better than ever before.
- watty 15y ago
  You sound a bit biased. There is love for both iOS and Android in and out of the "geek" community. My dad who is far from a geek has owned an iPhone and iPad. Now my mom owns them both and he owns a Droid X and Xoom.

120 points by ukdm 15y ago

I don't see Apple being fearful to be honest. They are still growing like crazy and they are serving a somewhat different market than Android is. You simply don't buy an iPhone because you want 'some phone'. This is not to say that an iPhone is better than some Android phone, but this is certainly perceived to be something different than 'the rest' by most of my friends and colleagues.

tomjen3 15y ago
Maybe your friends and colleagues but that isn't universal -- indeed I much prefer my HTC.
- arethuza 15y ago
  The best Android devices may be as good or even better than the best iPhones but the worst Android devices are much worse than any Apple device has ever been. I say this as the not-very-proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy Europa in addition to my iPhone and iPad.
  - tallanvor 15y ago
    Really? The Newton was pretty darn bad!
    - arethuza 15y ago
      Good point. I meant recent Apple devices :-)
  - hypotguy 15y ago
    The Samsung Galaxy Europa is cheapest entry level Android phone I've seen - where I'm from the i5500 can be picked up for about €70-100. I have one and it cost 1/5 that of an iPhone and is a pretty competent Android phone. For the price it's great value in my opinion and as far as I'm aware Apple makes nothing in that price range so I can't see how you can make any sort of comparison.
    - arethuza 15y ago
      YMMV Note that I am not comparing it directly to my iPhone but to the previous Samsung non-smart phone I had which I lost, which was just a basic phone. I'd honestly rather have a basic non-Android phone than the Galaxy Europa.
trezor 15y ago
I work in software development. Almost everyone in my department has Android-phones bar a few self-confessed iAddicts (and one daring Windows phone 7 beta-tester). Despite its huge commercial success, the iPhone is among my peers considered a rather lulzy thing and a the undisputed weakest and least sophisticated of all the mobile platforms when measured on its own merits. Not saying this is absolute truth either, but it certainly shows that your comment about what "most" people might think certainly doesn't ring true universally.
- MrScruff 15y ago
  I also work in software development. Among my colleagues there are a mix of iPhone & Android users, but the divide seems primarily related to cost with the juniors much more likely to own Android. I've played with a few Android devices and they're ok but to be honest, the whole thing seems to be playing out just like 90s Mac vs Windows, with Android users insisting iOS is a toy and iOS users berating Androids unpolished interface. For me it always boils down to the same thing, if you're willing to accept the constraints imposed by the products designer, Apple stuff is the best out there. > the undisputed weakest and least sophisticated of all the mobile platforms when measured on its own merits This is fairly obviously not true. The iOS SDK is still widely considered the benchmark for people that work cross platform. It doesn't really matter that your developer friends think on the relatively technical merits if they're no more informed than the average Android user.
  - trezor 15y ago
    Just replying to say how you are confirming my point either you intend to or not: What people think about different things differ, and there is no "universal" consensus about most things. Like there is no universal consensus on the iPhone being "better" than its Android rivals. I guess we somehow agree even though we seemingly don't.
- white_devil 15y ago
  the undisputed weakest and least sophisticated of all the mobile platforms when measured on its own merits. Oh my fucking God, please. I wasn't sure before, but you just outed yourself as a huge Google -fanboy. Yeah what's Apple's platform got going for it? -It just changed the whole industry and showed How It's Done. It's also regarded as technically very solid, and pleasant to develop for.
jokermatt999 15y ago
They are serving a different market, and I've seen less demand since Android came out. I know at least a dozen people who have Android phones (that are quite happy with them) off the top of my head, and I can only think of two who own an iPhone. The Android people don't want iPhones, but the iPhone people look jealously at Androids. This isn't a "techy" group either, it's mostly regular 20-somethings.

jordanroher 15y ago

Except Apple doesn't seem to care about achieving huge market share for the iPhone. They care about money, and by delaying the iPhone 5 they've managed to make even more money than usual. It must be habit that we go for the market share argument so often. A corporation's responsibility to its shareholders isn't to spread its logo across the land like a religion, but to return value (real dollars, not imaginary market share dollars) for their investment. That was slightly more ironic than I intended. Besides, there are plenty of other "hidden" reasons for Apple to sue these Android handset manufacturers. Steve Jobs feels betrayed by Eric Schmidt, Samsung makes eerily close copies of the iPhone, Apple doesn't attack HP and RIM because this isn't about actual patent infringement but taking out the smaller manufacturers who can't defend themselves against Apple Legal.

illumin8 15y ago
With a market cap of 23.06 billion, Samsung isn't exactly a small company. I think Apple is going after companies where it believes it has a significant chance of winning. Whether you believe software patents are a bad idea or not (I certainly don't like them), Apple has aggressively patented a lot of key features in iOS and it seems that many Android handsets are infringing.
- jsnell 15y ago
  Are you sure their market cap is that low? I find it a very hard number to believe.
- rrrazdan 15y ago
  Well I think your figure is wrong. Samsung is huge. Samsung Electronics has a market cap of 253 trillion won or 240 billion dollars[1]. The group's 2010 revenue was 201 billion dollars or thrice as much as Apple. They aren't big, they are absolutely huge. [1]http://thechinesenewsoflasvegas.com/business/market-cap-of-top-10-group-affiliates-hits-723-trillion-won/ http://thechinesenewsoflasvegas.com/business/market-cap-of-t... [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung
- fpgeek 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

allenp 15y ago

The author makes the mistake of equating market share with revenue - it is quite possible that Apple's 19% market share is makes more for them than Nokia at 24%, or even Nokia at 40%.

p0ppe 15y ago
"iPhone share of phone market in Q1: 5% volumes, 20% revenues, 55% profit" - http://www.asymco.com/2011/05/16/iphone-share-of-phone-market-in-q1/ http://www.asymco.com/2011/05/16/iphone-share-of-phone-marke...
- Synaesthesia 15y ago
  Q2: 66% Profit (!) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820784 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820784
lojack 15y ago
The author is arguing potential revenue and not relative revenue. From that point of view a 30% or 40% market share for apple would indeed be more revenue than a 19% market share. If these other companies are growing much faster than Apple, even if they are making less, that's revenue Apple isn't gaining.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago

What I don't get is why they aren't offering choices of different handsets. They offer 4 different versions of the iPod and 1 version of the iPhone. There should be at least 3 iPhones - the standard version, one with a 4.3 or 4.5 inch screen, and one with a slide out keyboard.

pooriaazimi 15y ago
That is called fragmentation. It's hard for devs to optimize their apps to look good on different resolutions or aspect ratios. Even making your app to look & work "well" on both portrait and landscape modes is hard (by well I mean pretty, slick and sound).
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Consumers have chosen fragmentation and rejected sameness. We're never going to live in a world where everyone carries around the same phone with the same resolution and all the same features. Devs, of which I am one, have to conform to reality. Apple and other platform companies have to make it as easy as possible for their developers to create applications that work on multiple resolutions (separate .xibs for iPhone and iPad is not the way), but their #1 concern is their customers, and if their customers want different styles (I think they do) then they should provide them.
- jff 15y ago
  It's somehow worked out for the incredibly fragmented Android environment. Their method of creating images that specify which parts of themselves can be safely stretched (NinePatch, http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/NinePatch.html http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/Nine...) is a pretty neat technical aid for that situation.
  - ceejayoz 15y ago
    NinePatch etc. are neat, but break down on complicated design elements.

rimantas 15y ago

There we go again. Market share. Author did not even bother to consider, at whose expense Samsung and HTC are gaining said share. Apple did grow too. Now 47% of their revenue comes from the product which was launched into the market where Apple had zero marked share and was laughed at for even trying. Another 21% comes from product which did not even exist 1.5 years ago. Author did forget to include these graphs: http://www.intomobile.com/2011/05/02/apple-has-50-profit-share-smartphone-makers-cant-hear-haters-behind-huge-wall-cash/ http://www.intomobile.com/2011/05/02/apple-has-50-profit-sha... Yep, Apple should be afraid very afraid.

anghyflawn 15y ago
Um, no. He pointed out that as the smartphone market grows (at the expense of feature phones, probably), HTC and Samsung are riding that wave much better. It's not horribly surprising, since Apple's product is not likely to be immediately affordable to many of those switching from feature phones, but as the smartphone (and eventually tablet) market becomes commoditized it is not a given that Apple will be able to successfully uphold their profit margin by charging relatively high premiums for their value proposition. Of course they might do just that, but that is not something we can take for granted.
- MrScruff 15y ago
  From the article, HTC's market share growth in the given interval was 4%, compared to Apple's 3%. Considering they achieved that growth on significantly lower margins than Apple (and consequently much less revenue growth), I don't think it's reasonable to claim HTC are riding the smartphone market growth much better than Apple. Samsungs 10% growth is more impressive, but again was achieved with much lower margins. Apple could afford to cut their margin significantly if competitive pressure forces their hand, and unlike RIM they have a product which is high demand.
  - anghyflawn 15y ago
    Percent is not the same as percentage points, you know. Growing from 6% to 10% is actually a growth of 66% percent, which sounds much more impressive. Fair point about the margins, but the fact is that Apple's entire business model is built on ensuring their margin stays high by charging large premiums for products that are clearly better than the competition. This is not guaranteed to last forever. The other companies on the other hand are used to living in commoditized markets with razor thin margins. I'm not saying Apple are doomed, but they clearly cannot just write the whole competition off, and they obviously aren't.

S_A_P 15y ago

I think that if apple were concerned about market share, iPhones would be on every carrier, there would be more iOS phones available and the pricing would be more competitive. I think that they are more happy to be a 20-30% market share with a semi premium product than a commoditized less capable product. The reality is that apple will never be able to compete with hardware vendors that crank out good-enough phones with a cheap yet very capable OS on them. I don't think they want commodity products in their line up. I also think that they may feel similarly to what steve jobs said about Microsoft in the 90s. For apple to win, google/android doesn't necessarily have to lose. As for the litigation, I don't know that it is necessarily tied to the fact that android has taken off so well. Like it or not, most hardware vendors use apple as a hardware benchmark, so copying their products is inevitable. I would not want to sit idly while other people make knockoffs of my products either.

AllenKids 15y ago
As a almost exclusive Apple product user I am happy with Apple having about 20%-30% market share in major category it is competing as well. (Mac may never reach the goal, but then again as long as it is doing well.) I'm uncomfortable with iPad's share to be honest, it's not healthy.

saturdaysaint 15y ago

Flamebait. Jobs played up the IP that went into the iPhone at its launch and (paraphrasing from memory) vowed to defend it vigorously at the time, well before a single Droid or Galaxy S or iPhone shipped. I'll dig through the WWDC transcript if someone forces me ;). They knew that they'd be copied, presumably by low-cost imitators as their products have always been imitated, and were always prepared to use IP law to defend their advantage. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with this strategy, but Apple saw these market pressures coming a long time ago.

mrcharles 15y ago
I recall that as well, but I think this article is still valid, because it speaks to Apple's vigor in enforcing them, as much as anything. I'm not going to say Apple is desperate yet, but I think that Apple foresees that desperation if they don't very actively pursue anything and everything.
- Loic 15y ago
  For once I totally agree. You must also add, that the vast majority of people are price sensitive and do not really care if they use an Apple, Samsung or HTC device. A lot of people around me bought the iPod (not iPad) because they were the cheapest and nice looking at the same time. Look around you at people having a decent normal job, kids, a house to repay, etc. At the end of the month, not a lot of money left for the high end Apple stuff. These are not even the majority of the people. In Europe, basically you have 30% of the people paying no taxes because no money, 30% with money but in fact nearly nothing left at the end of the month and 30% with extra (here I am generous). The iPhone is selling good in Europe only because it is subsidized by the mobile operators. So, if you continue following this line, this means that at least in Europe, Apple will simply not be able to grow past the 30% mark if not subsidized by the operators. Then you hit the last problem, the iPad is seen as a "big" iPhone by people. They use it in addition to a normal computer and buy it with a contract. Now you have Apple, depending for 60% of their income on hardware which most of the time requires the help of the mobile operators to be sold. This is not an easy position to be in. I do not own any Apple device, but I thank them for what they do, because they drive the general quality of the smart phones up.

hackermom 15y ago

Come on, man. Stop riding around on your inflated high horse. There's no platform war here for you to win, you ridiculous anti-Apple crusader wannabe. These actors all in the same boat, knee-deep in shitty lawsuits coming from all angles. And, remember, Apple fervently stressed the breadth of their IP portfolio of the iPhone long before Android showed up, along with promises to defend it.

tobylane 15y ago

Android's need isn't Apple's fear. Android's need is high market share, Apple's need is user engagement/entertainment (not market, as flash and so on 'badly' prove). Apple do perfectly well with low market share, I wish they wouldn't bother trying getting any further but when you make something so good you can only do so much to keep it out of the hands of some people.

notatoad 15y ago

i'm assuming that the app store revenues are counted as part of the iphone and ipad revenues?

cwp 15y ago

Samsung and HTC aren't eating Apple's lunch, they're eating Nokia's lunch. The author notes that makers of Android phones are gaining market share faster than Apple, and assumes that this will eventually mean taking market share from Apple, but that's far from given.

programminggeek 15y ago

Apple is not afraid of Android any more than Porsche is afraid of Ford. They are targeting effectively two distinct markets. Android doesn't do a great job of competing at the high end of the market outside of tech nerds. Seriously, the one year old iPhone 4 is still outselling even the newer Android phones on Verizon and AT&T. What Android is killing is becoming the default smartphone at every price range with every feature set you can imagine. Android covers all the smartphones that iPhone doesn't. iPhone isn't for everyone, Android tries harder to be. Android is much less focused as a platform than iOS. Android is going to keep working hard to be upmarket, and iOS is going to keep working to go downmarket with prepaid devices, more iPod Touch type devices with 3G or GPS or both. As a developer I just care about getting paid and in my experience people on iOS are more willing to buy my apps. Android users tend to be cheapskates. This can and will change at some point, but Apple is doing better now than they ever have. I doubt they are truly afraid of much right now. They are executing better than ever before.

watty 15y ago
You sound a bit biased. There is love for both iOS and Android in and out of the "geek" community. My dad who is far from a geek has owned an iPhone and iPad. Now my mom owns them both and he owns a Droid X and Xoom.