And your implication is that people who buy Apple products don't? What makes you think that the consumer who shops for an iPhone or iPad or MacBook Pro doesn't exercise the same degree of care in making his purchase, considering that they tend to cost more than the next best alternative?
I too do my fair share of research by watching early YouTube reviews and reading online coverage.
I did not imply that. I simply stated that I feel that it's the
individual user/purchaser who assigns
value to what is being purchased, not "the market" or companies, as
you implied previously. I'm not making generalizations about Apple users.
And it's well within your right not to get an iPhone. That the iPhone has 12% market share shows that 88% of the world agreed with your sentiment in one way or another.
What that also means is that 12% of the world evidently felt that the iPhone represented the "best" smartphone for them, whatever that may mean to them. And 12% of the world's population is still a very large number in an absolute sense. Well enough to make Apple one of the biggest companies in the entire world, not forgetting that each iPhone sold this way is very expensive (and profitable).
Agreed. I did not deny that. But iPhone users love to attribute that 88% to cheapness, but even if only a 4th of those individuals that choose Android are not "cheap", it is still way more than Apple's 12%. People are not choosing Apple for a
reason, which isn't always
money. The reason being
value, in the context I expressed previously.
The answer has always been right in front of you. The question is whether you have the heart for the truth and the will to see it.
First, Apple undeniably sells the greatest number of high-end smartphones, which is pretty much the only segment that is bringing in any sort of meaningful profit. Don't blame Apple for this. Blame the rest of the competition for not being to earn a single cent off the products they sell.
Second, there is no one absolute "best" smartphone, only a smartphone which best meets the individual user's needs. Refer to my earlier comment above about 12% iPhone market share being a huge enough number to make Apple immensely profitable and you have your answer.
Third, you are right that iOS is a monopoly, and that's besides the point. Blackberry ran proprietary software; that didn't stop the company from tanking because their products simply sucked. If the iPhone sucked, nobody would buy it, proprietary or not.
Last, I agree with you that the iPhone's biggest competitor is always the iPhone that came out before it, because they are just so good. Android is nowhere close to even becoming a viable competitor as far as I am concerned.
I think there's a lot of hyperbole and opinion in the above. However I can agree that Apple playing in the high-end market exclusively is a factor. This is a segment where people are accustomed of paying more for less (tangible benefits). A company
name (Apple, Mercedes-Benz, etc) is assigned a high value component here. Certainly not for me. I would never buy a Mercedes when a Honda would do. Android devices far exceed the (overall)
capabilities of iPhone. That is a fact, just like the new MBP is less capable than the one before.
Your numbers paint an oversimplified picture which fails to take many factors into account.
1) Piracy - the developer of Monument Valley estimated that over 90% of Android users who played his game downloaded it illegally. The iOS store is not free of piracy, but the incidence is much lower. What use is a huge install base if nobody is willing to pay for your app?
2) Not all Android phones are made equal. Lower end phones may not be capable of running more taxing software. That dramatically reduces your potential install base right there.
3) Effort - optimising for a few iOS devices with known specs vs having to optimise for the myriad of android devices out in the wild. Developers are making more money on Android with less effort.
4) Shrinking iPhone market share conveniently ignores the fact that the number of iPhone users is still increasing in an absolute sense. More than enough to sustain and support a thriving ecosystem of apps and accessories.
5) Market share doesn't necessarily mean install base. A recent article by stratechery pegs the number of Android devices in active use at 1 billion, and iOS at 600k. This means the active market share of iOS is closer to 40%, not the dismal 12% painted by analysts. So you will definitely have to rework all your numbers.
In short, developers will still release apps for Android. But unless the narrative changes dramatically overnight, they will continue to flock to where the money is by releasing apps for iOS first or exclusively, and ensuring that those apps remain the most optimised and the best in class.
As a happy iOS user, I cannot ask for anything more.
NONE of the above influenced my decision to purchase an iPhone or an alternative.
My point is that the average shopper doesn't look at all that either.
Let's face it, Apple has a lot of cachet. And there is a lot of muscle memory in the Apple fanbase. It's hard to break out from what's comfortable. Even my daughter wants an iPhone (upgrade, she uses a 4S), despite me showing her the things
she won't be able to do with it that I can with my Note5. When I asked why an iPhone, she could not verbalize an answer. She just "
wanted" it. But device vs device, as it what you can and cannot do with it, it's not even a contest. Where Apple wins is in the integration and ecosystem. Remove that (by not having a Mac), and the appeal drops,
significantly.
How is it that the latest iPhone is the best device Apple has done (competes with itself, remember?) but less people are choosing to buy it? I know there's a LOT of factors (I won't go into), but I also believe that this is happening because more customers are starting putting greater value in what Apple
doesn't offer, despite whatever quality (perceived or otherwise) Apple puts into their devices. Which is what led ME to leave them.
So, to me Apple's shrinking numbers support this. We'll see. All of this here is merely academic.
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As an actual developer, working for a company that actually makes good money with iOS and Android apps, I can tell you that it isn't so. The number of Android users willing to part from their money is smaller. Not the percentage, but the absolute number.
I don't see how you can make that assertion outside of the product(s) that you/your company develop. Maybe I'm missing something.
Plus there is a bigger variation of devices in the Android world, creating more work. Right now, you can either write for iOS 7 and it works everywhere from iPhone 4 upwards, or you write for iOS 9 and it works everywhere from iPhone 4s upwards.
Can't argue with that. Cost vs benefit as it relates to effort must be taken into account. And Android fragmentation can be an issue, from a developer perspective. But I really doubt the major app developers (Netflix, etc) will stop developing for Android because "it's hard/expensive."
And excuse me, but if the iPhone has 10% market share and Android has 90%, then clearly iPhone has nine times more room for growth
Haha, yes.
I meant from the perspective of the target audience for developers, within the individual market segment at the "spender" level, but you can look at it your way too.
