4 ms·

Of course there will be other brands. The iPhone is by far the most successful phone brand, and they ship less than 30% of new phones each year. Something simil

Of course there will be other brands. The iPhone is by far the most successful phone brand, and they ship less than 30% of new phones each year. Something similar could happen here, where GM loses share like Nokia did, and new companies like Lucid take a market segment, like LG does with phones.

jonplackett 5y ago
Important to note though that Apply extract a great deal more than 30% of the profit from the market
- sliken 5y ago
  The most recent numbers I've heard of is 75%. So android is typically a battle to the bottom, with various mostly failed efforts, consolidation, various vendors giving up on markets, etc. Motorola (bought and then sold by google), Sony, HTC and many others are not making much profit. Samsung is doing better, but constantly fighting cheaper competitors. Seems like Samsung is doing as well as it is, because of synergies relating to their production of CPUs, having a chip fab, screens, dram, flash, and cameras for the world wide market. Android's a tough market to be in, you are competing with Google (who makes pixel phones), numerous low cost manufacturers, Apple, and your ecosystem taxed by google through the app store and the market is split among many companies in the android system so it's hard to catch google's services, play store, etc. Not that android manufacturers aren't trying. Amazon made an effort, but seems to have largely given up on calling their devices android.
  - jonplackett 5y ago
    I wonder if driverless cars could follow that same android lath with Waymo being the alternative car OS that all the other companies have to use - but this time having to also pay google a lot more!
    - sliken 5y ago
      Possible, I would see waymo providing a autonomous driving solution ... as long as they could show ads during the trip.
thow-58d4e8b 5y ago
Please, please - could people stop making this analogy? Cars are not phones, and will never be. American lower class or Chinese middle class are not going to shell out $70k for a new toy every two years. Cars are not going to be made with 60% margins. You cannot wear a car in your pocket to show it off to your relatives or business partners. Apple's business model, in short - is selling mediocre hardware for premium prices, and mask it with excellent software. Optimizing software to make it 10x better, faster, using less battery - fairly common. For any activity that interfaces with the physical world - forget it - we're tapped out, making 2-5% improvements per year. No amount of refinement will make a $20k econobox sellable for $60k (also, ironically, LG dropped out of phone business)
- dexen 5y ago
  >You cannot wear a car in your pocket to show it off to your relatives or business partners. There's a few striking errors in your post, and this one is the most glaring - in that it's very visual, and also very wrong. Consider the photo of the Tesla (Model 3) key fob [1]: it's a small car that one does, in fact, wear in one's pocket to show it off to one's relatives or business partners. Similar with the Tesla App [2] - it shows a desirable car on your phone's screen for the very same reason; the rest is nice extras. [1] https://imgur.com/a/L4AwONf https://imgur.com/a/L4AwONf [2] https://imgur.com/a/oBw64Dy https://imgur.com/a/oBw64Dy

jonplackett 5y ago

Important to note though that Apply extract a great deal more than 30% of the profit from the market

sliken 5y ago
The most recent numbers I've heard of is 75%. So android is typically a battle to the bottom, with various mostly failed efforts, consolidation, various vendors giving up on markets, etc. Motorola (bought and then sold by google), Sony, HTC and many others are not making much profit. Samsung is doing better, but constantly fighting cheaper competitors. Seems like Samsung is doing as well as it is, because of synergies relating to their production of CPUs, having a chip fab, screens, dram, flash, and cameras for the world wide market. Android's a tough market to be in, you are competing with Google (who makes pixel phones), numerous low cost manufacturers, Apple, and your ecosystem taxed by google through the app store and the market is split among many companies in the android system so it's hard to catch google's services, play store, etc. Not that android manufacturers aren't trying. Amazon made an effort, but seems to have largely given up on calling their devices android.
- jonplackett 5y ago
  I wonder if driverless cars could follow that same android lath with Waymo being the alternative car OS that all the other companies have to use - but this time having to also pay google a lot more!
  - sliken 5y ago
    Possible, I would see waymo providing a autonomous driving solution ... as long as they could show ads during the trip.

thow-58d4e8b 5y ago

Please, please - could people stop making this analogy? Cars are not phones, and will never be. American lower class or Chinese middle class are not going to shell out $70k for a new toy every two years. Cars are not going to be made with 60% margins. You cannot wear a car in your pocket to show it off to your relatives or business partners. Apple's business model, in short - is selling mediocre hardware for premium prices, and mask it with excellent software. Optimizing software to make it 10x better, faster, using less battery - fairly common. For any activity that interfaces with the physical world - forget it - we're tapped out, making 2-5% improvements per year. No amount of refinement will make a $20k econobox sellable for $60k (also, ironically, LG dropped out of phone business)

dexen 5y ago
>You cannot wear a car in your pocket to show it off to your relatives or business partners. There's a few striking errors in your post, and this one is the most glaring - in that it's very visual, and also very wrong. Consider the photo of the Tesla (Model 3) key fob [1]: it's a small car that one does, in fact, wear in one's pocket to show it off to one's relatives or business partners. Similar with the Tesla App [2] - it shows a desirable car on your phone's screen for the very same reason; the rest is nice extras. [1] https://imgur.com/a/L4AwONf https://imgur.com/a/L4AwONf [2] https://imgur.com/a/oBw64Dy https://imgur.com/a/oBw64Dy