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The problem with going up against Google is that they offer a superior product to end-users for free. I have no doubt that the iPad will remain a superior produ

by tybris 15y ago

The problem with going up against Google is that they offer a superior product to end-users for free. I have no doubt that the iPad will remain a superior product to the Amazon Tablet. However, I also have no doubt it will keep costing more than the Amazon tablet. Consumers care about that extra ~$250. Like Google, the iPad is currently the low-end and the high-end of the market, but unlike Google, it's vulnerable on the low-end. That's where Amazon will attack it and with ~100 million customers, their credit card numbers ready to go, good brand-loyalty, a huge content store, and so much experience in on-line/cloud services that even Apple uses them, they'll likely have quite a bit of success.

latch 15y ago
Notice that in my OP, I said "take any significant chunk of _profit_". I'm not as concerned about marketshare as I am about profit. Yes, Android devices are outselling iPhones, but they are generating considerably less profit. I don't know the latest figures, but iPhones relatively small market share accounted for over 50% of profits last time I saw. Amazon might sell a lot of cheap tablets, but that won't hurt Apple's profits.
- AllenKids 15y ago
  The latest figure is 67% according to Horace Dediu.
- ZeroGravitas 15y ago
  Apple don't have a relatively small market share in smartphones. Asymco likes to quote the mobile phone, not the smartphone numbers to make this stat sound more impressive than it is. If you do that then it's something like 4% of unit sales share giving 50% of profit. If you exclude people selling millions of throwaway cellphones for pennies and only include HTC, RIM and the smartphone parts of Nokia, Samsung etc. then the profit they make (while still better than the industry average, thanks to RIM and Nokia pulling it down) is much more closely tied to market share and therefore seems much more under threat as Android advances on that front.

by tybris 15y ago

latch 15y ago

Notice that in my OP, I said "take any significant chunk of _profit_". I'm not as concerned about marketshare as I am about profit. Yes, Android devices are outselling iPhones, but they are generating considerably less profit. I don't know the latest figures, but iPhones relatively small market share accounted for over 50% of profits last time I saw. Amazon might sell a lot of cheap tablets, but that won't hurt Apple's profits.

AllenKids 15y ago
The latest figure is 67% according to Horace Dediu.
ZeroGravitas 15y ago
Apple don't have a relatively small market share in smartphones. Asymco likes to quote the mobile phone, not the smartphone numbers to make this stat sound more impressive than it is. If you do that then it's something like 4% of unit sales share giving 50% of profit. If you exclude people selling millions of throwaway cellphones for pennies and only include HTC, RIM and the smartphone parts of Nokia, Samsung etc. then the profit they make (while still better than the industry average, thanks to RIM and Nokia pulling it down) is much more closely tied to market share and therefore seems much more under threat as Android advances on that front.