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Every indicator in mobile is trending the wrong way for Apple right now. The Play store is gaining in every metric and their market share overall keeps slipping

Every indicator in mobile is trending the wrong way for Apple right now. The Play store is gaining in every metric and their market share overall keeps slipping. You think they can afford to ignore this forever? Maturing markets are fundamentally different from emerging markets. Historically Apple's been very good at inventing new product categories and terrible at competing in mature markets. The strategy they're pursuing now looks an awful lot like the one that eventually lost them the desktop market. The iPhone 5C actually increases Apple's profit margin over the 5. They could instead shave $100 off the price and bring a lot of new users into the iOS fold and still maintain a healthy profit margin.

simonh 13y ago
So you're arguing that the PC market, in which they are unbelievably profitable is, er, not a mature market? How about MP3 music players, which is so mature it's withering and dying and yet is still basically an iPod market? I don't think you've quite thought that argument through very far. And still with this 'lost them the desktop market'. If Apple's market defining desktop business, which dictate the shape of the computer market by denying the profitable high ground for $1,000+ systems to their competitors, count as losing then you and I have very different ideas of what that word means. If the iPhone's sales numbers last year and the year before that were high enough to sustain a highly profitable premium business, then bearing in mind their sales are still skyrocketing I just don't see where the risk is. Why is having a minority market share in desktop PCs a problem for Apple? What harm has it done them? How has it hindered their ability to prosper over the last 15 years? If it's not been a problem for them in PCs, why should it be a problem for them in mobile? bear in mind that their minority stake in the mobile market is a region thing. In the single most valuable market, the US, they have more market share than Android. > The iPhone 5C actually increases Apple's profit margin over the 5. ... I know, I don't know what the Andorid camp are going to do about it. I mean how can they compete when.... oh... hold on a minute. You're saying that's a problems for _Apple_. Er. Ok.

simonh 13y ago

So you're arguing that the PC market, in which they are unbelievably profitable is, er, not a mature market? How about MP3 music players, which is so mature it's withering and dying and yet is still basically an iPod market? I don't think you've quite thought that argument through very far. And still with this 'lost them the desktop market'. If Apple's market defining desktop business, which dictate the shape of the computer market by denying the profitable high ground for $1,000+ systems to their competitors, count as losing then you and I have very different ideas of what that word means. If the iPhone's sales numbers last year and the year before that were high enough to sustain a highly profitable premium business, then bearing in mind their sales are still skyrocketing I just don't see where the risk is. Why is having a minority market share in desktop PCs a problem for Apple? What harm has it done them? How has it hindered their ability to prosper over the last 15 years? If it's not been a problem for them in PCs, why should it be a problem for them in mobile? bear in mind that their minority stake in the mobile market is a region thing. In the single most valuable market, the US, they have more market share than Android. > The iPhone 5C actually increases Apple's profit margin over the 5. ... I know, I don't know what the Andorid camp are going to do about it. I mean how can they compete when.... oh... hold on a minute. You're saying that's a problems for _Apple_. Er. Ok.