4 ms·

How did Apple "win"? They have always been a fraction of the market share of desktop/laptop computers, and they are only popular on mobile in the US, worldwide

How did Apple "win"? They have always been a fraction of the market share of desktop/laptop computers, and they are only popular on mobile in the US, worldwide Android is dominant with 72% of the market. If you mean money===success, then sure, they have money, but do you compare their money to all the companies making PCs and all the companies making Android phones in the world combined? Apple fans have 1 single company to choose from, but PC/Android fans have hundreds of options - I can get a PC or Android in hundreds of form factors, whatever I need but Apple only sells what Apple makes. Sounds to me like PC/Android fans are the real "winners". >Apple won only after windows gave average home users a horrific bsod/virus/reboot hell of an existence for about 20 years. This hasn't been a thing for a very long time. I hear about as much about the spinning beach ball of death as I do BSOD. Apple is by no means perfect, or did you forget "you're holding it wrong".

steveBK123 2y ago
Everyone is a winner of their own story
CamJN 2y ago
AAPL 3.785T > MSFT 3.134T. In the only measure that matters for American companies, Apple won.
- brightlancer 2y ago
  That's a silly comparison: by that metric, Apple "won" against Saudi Aramco and Berkshire Hathaway, and Microsoft also "won" against them. Except that they aren't in the same business. On the desktop, Microsoft is still kicking Apple's ass. Even moreso for servers. The only place Apple "won" is on mobile, where Microsoft lost to _everybody_.
  - steveBK123 2y ago
    I can't find the exact stat right now with some light google, but I recall there was a stat that while Apple doesn't have majority of user base, they essentially have an outsized share of the profit due to the average sales price & associated profit margins. In Windows space, MSFT gets their license money, and then its a commodity race to the bottom by the hardware makers who need to pay AMD/Intel for chips, MSFT for a license, and compete with 100 no-names OEMs for every penny.
  - iamacyborg 2y ago
    > The only place Apple "won" is on mobile They won on MP3 players. They won on music stores. They won on mobile. They won on laptops. They won on headphones. Etc. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any stretch of the imagination but it's immediately obvious that they've "won" more than just the mobile market.
    - leptons 2y ago
      >They won on MP3 players. Sure I guess if you're still living in 2010. Nobody uses an "mp3 player" anymore. Get with the times grampa. Everyone has a cellphone that plays MP3s today. > They won on music stores. Spotify is at 36% market share compared to Apple's 30% of the music streaming market. >They won on mobile. And Apple did not "win on mobile" - only in the US are they popular, but globally Android has 72% market share. Apple lost the mobile market to Android a long time ago. >They won on laptops. No, Apple did not "win on laptops", they are still at about 9% market share. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_of_personal_computer_vendors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_of_personal_compu... "As of the third quarter of 2020, HP was cited as the leading vendor for notebook computers closely followed by Lenovo, both with a share of 23.6% each. They were followed by Dell (13.7%), Apple (9.7%) and Acer (7.9%)." Nothing has really changed since 2020. Apple will always be a tiny portion of the personal computer and laptop market. >They won on headphones. huh? There are far better headphones than anything Apple makes. Are you talking about earbuds? There's a difference. No, Apple has not "won" on anything but having overpriced hardware. $3600 for a VR headset? Yeah, I guess they "won" most ridiculously overpriced hardware ever.
  - tonyedgecombe 2y ago
    >On the desktop, Microsoft is still kicking Apple's ass. Microsoft won in the enterprise. They are steadily loosing market share outside of it.
    - steveBK123 2y ago
      Arguably in the long run, Amazon is winning enterprise in ways Google never did. MSFT owns enterprise desktop / desktop collab use cases (and any virtualization / server side stuff to support it) only.
Gigachad 2y ago
Apple has won for people who can afford quality. If a student has $400 for a laptop, it doesn’t matter how much they appreciate quality, they can’t afford the MacBook and will buy something cheaper. Anecdotally, I work in a coworking space with lots of businesses in Australia, and I’d say about 85% of people in the office space have MacBooks.
- leptons 2y ago
  What quality? We had to sue Apple in a class action because the motherboard in our MBP (and many other people's) died 7 times and the 8th time it happened Apple wanted to charge us $1200 to replace it again. We had to sue them, but we won. > I’d say about 85% of people in the office space have MacBooks. That doesn't prove quality. All it proves is you are in an echo chamber. I've worked in lots of corporate environments that were all PC and some that were all Apple, and a few that were mixed. All it really depends on is if the company values appearances or functionality, and appearances are one of Apple's main value propositions.

steveBK123 2y ago

Everyone is a winner of their own story

CamJN 2y ago

AAPL 3.785T > MSFT 3.134T. In the only measure that matters for American companies, Apple won.

brightlancer 2y ago
That's a silly comparison: by that metric, Apple "won" against Saudi Aramco and Berkshire Hathaway, and Microsoft also "won" against them. Except that they aren't in the same business. On the desktop, Microsoft is still kicking Apple's ass. Even moreso for servers. The only place Apple "won" is on mobile, where Microsoft lost to _everybody_.
- steveBK123 2y ago
  I can't find the exact stat right now with some light google, but I recall there was a stat that while Apple doesn't have majority of user base, they essentially have an outsized share of the profit due to the average sales price & associated profit margins. In Windows space, MSFT gets their license money, and then its a commodity race to the bottom by the hardware makers who need to pay AMD/Intel for chips, MSFT for a license, and compete with 100 no-names OEMs for every penny.
- iamacyborg 2y ago
  > The only place Apple "won" is on mobile They won on MP3 players. They won on music stores. They won on mobile. They won on laptops. They won on headphones. Etc. I'm not an Apple fanboy by any stretch of the imagination but it's immediately obvious that they've "won" more than just the mobile market.
  - leptons 2y ago
    >They won on MP3 players. Sure I guess if you're still living in 2010. Nobody uses an "mp3 player" anymore. Get with the times grampa. Everyone has a cellphone that plays MP3s today. > They won on music stores. Spotify is at 36% market share compared to Apple's 30% of the music streaming market. >They won on mobile. And Apple did not "win on mobile" - only in the US are they popular, but globally Android has 72% market share. Apple lost the mobile market to Android a long time ago. >They won on laptops. No, Apple did not "win on laptops", they are still at about 9% market share. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_of_personal_computer_vendors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_share_of_personal_compu... "As of the third quarter of 2020, HP was cited as the leading vendor for notebook computers closely followed by Lenovo, both with a share of 23.6% each. They were followed by Dell (13.7%), Apple (9.7%) and Acer (7.9%)." Nothing has really changed since 2020. Apple will always be a tiny portion of the personal computer and laptop market. >They won on headphones. huh? There are far better headphones than anything Apple makes. Are you talking about earbuds? There's a difference. No, Apple has not "won" on anything but having overpriced hardware. $3600 for a VR headset? Yeah, I guess they "won" most ridiculously overpriced hardware ever.
- tonyedgecombe 2y ago
  >On the desktop, Microsoft is still kicking Apple's ass. Microsoft won in the enterprise. They are steadily loosing market share outside of it.
  - steveBK123 2y ago
    Arguably in the long run, Amazon is winning enterprise in ways Google never did. MSFT owns enterprise desktop / desktop collab use cases (and any virtualization / server side stuff to support it) only.

Gigachad 2y ago

Apple has won for people who can afford quality. If a student has $400 for a laptop, it doesn’t matter how much they appreciate quality, they can’t afford the MacBook and will buy something cheaper. Anecdotally, I work in a coworking space with lots of businesses in Australia, and I’d say about 85% of people in the office space have MacBooks.

leptons 2y ago
What quality? We had to sue Apple in a class action because the motherboard in our MBP (and many other people's) died 7 times and the 8th time it happened Apple wanted to charge us $1200 to replace it again. We had to sue them, but we won. > I’d say about 85% of people in the office space have MacBooks. That doesn't prove quality. All it proves is you are in an echo chamber. I've worked in lots of corporate environments that were all PC and some that were all Apple, and a few that were mixed. All it really depends on is if the company values appearances or functionality, and appearances are one of Apple's main value propositions.