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> What Microsoft should really do is play Apple's game instead of Google's It's Google that plays Microsoft's game, which has been played before and Apple lost
by bad_user 14y ago
> What Microsoft should really do is play Apple's game instead of Google's
It's Google that plays Microsoft's game, which has been played before and Apple lost.
It's inevitable for Apple to get caught by competition, they are also bad at competing on price and their distribution network pales in comparison to the distribution network of all Android phone makers combined. One or two years ago, people talked about how small the Android apps ecosystem was compared to iOS, but nowadays they are almost on equal footing and eventually Android's ecosystem will get much bigger.
If there's anything Microsoft learned is that hardware becomes eventually a commodity and their Windows/Office monopoly made it possible for them to release one shitty product after another and still have room for recovery.
Apple may be more profitable than Microsoft, but they don't have the same wiggle room for screwups.
- rayiner 14y ago> If there's anything Microsoft learned is that hardware becomes eventually a commodity Hardware becomes a commodity if you let it become a commodity. That's what happened with PC's and that's why all the sane manufacturers gave up their PC hardware businesses. But Apple is still making plenty of money selling non-commodity personal computers. Apple's margins on "commodity" hardware like Macbook Airs is 25%+. Moreover, even if hardware becoming a commodity is the equilibrium result, it's not sensible to go from there to conclude there is no money in hardware. In the long run, in competitive markets, profits tend towards zero anyway. The trick is to make money during shifts from one equilibrium to another. The iPod cash cow seems to be dropping off for Apple now, but in the intervening decade they made boatloads of money on that product.