I assume this must be, at least in some way, because a very large percentage of Android customers only have an Android device because they were sold into it by a "knowledgeable" AT&T or Verizon (probably Verizon) sales rep who insisted to them that Google is more open and that bigger is better.
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Apple's App Store Still Number One in Revenue Despite Google Play Growth
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Yes, because there is only one country on this world and just two carriers on this world
What about the companies at #3 and below... are they just screwed?
Probably not... as long as they can make money.
You don't HAVE to be #1 to stay in business.
Coke and Pepsi will be around for the rest of our lives... and so will Apple and Samsung.
They are all huge mega corporations.
Coke is ahead of Pepsi at the moment... but both companies are profitable and successful. So what would happen if Pepsi did sneak past Coke? Nothing... they would both continue to sell products and make billions of dollars.
The position on the chart... or the percentage of a market you have... is not as important as your ability to make money and pay your bills.
it's a "cheap iphone" it was obvious that they'd use plastic for it, what i can say is that they definitely used the best kind of polycarbonate for that volume rocker. why dont you just wait for it's release and check out how the body of a cheap iphone is better than other companies' flagship phones' build.
Nobody's saying Apple won't stay in business. They aren't going anywhere. They don't have to be number one, but the shareholders and the board expect growth. Growth is a company's reason for being in business to begin with at least when we're talking about multinationals and not mom and pop businesses, but even small businesses expect growth.
You say "the position on the chart.. is not as important as your ability to make money" while at the same time ignoring that your "position on the chart" is a representation of your likely ability to make money going forward.
Apple's profit has dipped a bit recently... but it's still a helluva lot better than it's been in the last decade.
Also... companies cannot grow forever, can they?
Sometimes... not always.
Especially with Apple... they make tons of money despite not having the most market share or selling the most number of units.
The iPhone is 13% of the smartphone market... yet it helped bring Apple $6 billion in 3 months.
Apple has no problem making money.
Oh I wasn't worried about the market share numbers, but now the profit numbers are dramatically down as well, but I've beaten this horse enough for today.
Good chatting with you!
Down from what? Isn't Apple making more profit than they did a few years ago?
Nope. Apparently Revenue is up, but profit is down. It's because their older models (which have smaller margins) are becoming increasingly popular. It's the problem Apple is trying to fix with the rumoured "cheap" iphone.
Oh, they will be on top. There's no doubt about that. And it most certainly will be news when the Vegan Supermarket that had been #1 in the entire world for years is overthrown and defeated.
But that's been my whole problem with this argument.
"Percentage of the entire market" includes many companies who are not Apple.
The smartphone market is huge now. If Apple's share of smartphone profits is down... it means the other companies are finally making some money.
Other companies are allowed to do that... ya know?
There are dozens of companies selling smartphones nowadays... and they are making money. That's out of Apple's control.
I can see why "Apple's profit is down" is a problem. That's a problem that concerns Apple, and only Apple.
But I don't understand why "Apple's percentage of the profit in the entire smartphone market" is such a big deal. Apple is only one company out of many. And the smartphone market is mature.
It's like I said before... if there is only one grocery store in a town... it will get 100% the business.
But as more grocery stores get built... that first store will never get 100% anymore.
And that's fine! It's just how business works!
Why are you so fixated on Apple's percentage of the profit in the smartphone market? Can there be a more useless metric?
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People who are interested in understanding the nature of the Smartphone market and the success or failure of the companies in it are interested in how well these companies are competing against each other financially. You act like Apple is in a race with itself or operating in some vacuum.
Looking at historical and potential future profitability is a pretty common metric by which to judge companies engaging in this type of business.
Ok but my question is what ratio of apps do you buy vs get free?
If you are the type that thinks software should all be free and don't mind ads, you'll probably be happier on Android as long as you don't have any problem with being sold to ad networks.
I agree that it's nice to know how you are doing financially against all other companies. But at the same time... profit share is one of many data points like market share, usage share, etc.
Did you forget that the entire smartphone market has grown tremendously since Apple had that 74% profit share?
Apple has no control over the fact that many companies are now making money in this huge mature smartphone market. Of course Apple's "share" was going to fall.
Does anyone remember what McDonald's profit share in the fast-food market was before Burger King came on the scene?
Is it still relevant today?
People don't think Android has nice apps?
I'll just leave this here.
http://androidniceties.tumblr.com/
I'll just leave this here.
http://androidniceties.tumblr.com/
Google Play has the worst localization, better apps are not discoverable, clutter, sometimes downloads an app that is not compatible. etc etc...
It's not "many companies" that are taking Apple's profits, it's Samsung. You can look at Apple's drop in share of profits and Samsung's rise. They almost completely overlap except a couple percent went to "those other guys".
So what if it's mostly Samsung? The fact still remians... the smartphone market is HUGE. It's far greater than Apple. And Apple knows this.
I still don't see why this matters so much.
I can't imagine Apple set out to have the highest percentage of the profit in an entire industry.
I think things like that just happen. It's a nice thing to be able to say... I'll give you that.
If Apple makes 5 billion dollars profit in three months... that's the same amount of money whether it's 74% of the market's profit or 54% of the market's profit.
Really? If you don't think Jobs, Cook, and literally thousands of other people were working countless hours to make that happen you're dreaming.
Jobs, Cook and others work countless hours to make great products. And depending on how many people buy those products determines how much money Apple makes at the end of the quarter.
But they can't possibly aim to get a certain percentage of the profits in an entire industry.
Why? Because Apple isn't the only company in the smartphone market. They can't control what other companies do.
So how can Apple aim to get a certain percentage of anything... when they don't know what the other guys will do?
Example #1... Apple could say "We want to sell 35 million iPhones this quarter."
That's a straightforward goal. Make the products, do some advertising, etc. It's entirely up to Apple to achieve that goal.
Example #2... Apple could say "We want to get 60% of the market's profits this quarter."
Now they're dealing with outside forces... other companies who they have no control over.
How do you determine the percentage of anything? You wait till the end of the quarter... calculate everyone's numbers... and see where they are on the chart.
Uh, you can bet they can and do. You don't think they have internal numbers on market sizes, which carriers to roll out first, which countries to roll out various iTunes stores to and when?
When Cook flies to other countries to negotiate carrier deals they don't sit back and say "We made a great product, let's just randomly go visit a country and talk to some random carrier there"
Competition means you make your product more lucrative to customers and other interested parties. You don't think Apple's purchase deals with the various carriers are designed to give it a certain amount of leverage and ensure a certain amount of sales?
Everything they do is impacted by "outside forces".
I'm not saying they can sit down and say "We want X percent" but they're trying to get the highest percentage they can.
Apple wants the highest everything they can. They want to sell the most phones they can. They want to sell the most iPads they can. They want to sell the most apps they can. They want the highest customer satisfaction they can get.
And as of right now... 54% of the market's profits is the best they can get.
Do you think they were holding something back? No... they did the best they could considering what's going on in this now huge mature market.
My biggest disagreement with you was the notion that (and I'm paraphrasing you here) "Apple had 74% of the market's profits and now they only have 54% of the market... they're in trouble."
Well yeah... the number 54 is lower than 74.
But considering how huge the market grew during that time... it's not really that bad.
200 million smartphones were sold last quarter... only 31 million were made by Apple.
Heartbreaking, right? Not exactly. Apple sold every iPhone they could. They made as much money as they could. And they made A LOT of money.
If there's one thing we can say about Apple... they make a lot of money even though they're not always on top of every list.