Only an Apple customer could be happy at such news. A normal person would think they are getting the shaft.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple's Share of Mobile Phone Industry Profits Pushes Toward 60%
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm not sure what you're trying to fight against or what you're trying to prove.
Seems consumers think there is no rip-off at all. Apple products present a substantial value proposition to them. We're actually getting *more* with Apple products - the most complete, polished products in their categories, including ONE company that actually stands behind the ENTIRE package: software + hardware.
Value for your dollar.
It's the reason Apple's old, outdated products (i.e., iPhone 3GS) still outsell most modern handsets put out by the competition.
No such thing. It doesn't exist.
It's what the market can bear and what consumers are willing to pay.
Hey RP, If Apple products are such a rip-off (according to you), why do YOU buy them anyway?
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)
Great for Apple, shareholders and the like but for me as a consumer, these numbers mean little to me.
Proper kick in the nuts for Nokia tho. Let's see if Microsoft can save them.
Great for Apple, shareholders and the like but for me as a consumer, these numbers mean little to me.
Proper kick in the nuts for Nokia tho. Let's see if Microsoft can save them.
Remember the netbook craze? PC manufacturer's rushed to make ever cheaper and every smaller netbooks to grab market share. It worked. They got headlines and market share. And made maybe a nickel per unit in profit.
Going cheap might sell units, but eventually people realize they are buying cheap and then decide to step up to the company making good stuff. Apple makes good stuff. People are not being ripped off because it's an entirely voluntary thing to buy or not buy Apple products. Yet people line up to do so.
Apple found a sweet spot for their phones. In the U.S. the iPhone is as cheap as the other new smart phones, and outside the U.S. there is a price premium compared to the hey-I'll-give-you-a-phone deals. But people like what Apple is doing and the profits are following.
Good for the consumer (who buys what they want).
Good for Apple (who builds up their bottom line).
Good for the industry (as Apple has funds to R&D the future that others will copy).
Going cheap might sell units, but eventually people realize they are buying cheap and then decide to step up to the company making good stuff. Apple makes good stuff. People are not being ripped off because it's an entirely voluntary thing to buy or not buy Apple products. Yet people line up to do so.
Apple found a sweet spot for their phones. In the U.S. the iPhone is as cheap as the other new smart phones, and outside the U.S. there is a price premium compared to the hey-I'll-give-you-a-phone deals. But people like what Apple is doing and the profits are following.
Good for the consumer (who buys what they want).
Good for Apple (who builds up their bottom line).
Good for the industry (as Apple has funds to R&D the future that others will copy).
How dare they make a profit or not pass on savings? Unforgivable!
Free country , you don't have to buy an iphone.
On a more informative scale, Apple and for that matter any good company will take quite a chunk of their profits to make more money with future products.
Their R & D budget is huge, they secure their supply chains and why would any company have to discount a successful product?
Working too close to the cash flow is dangerous.
They are sitting pretty and will spend their cash, when an opportunity arises.
Can't do that if you don't have it.
Apple's business model works better than this:
A peddler is selling pencils in the street. A friend comes by and asks:
"How are you doing?"
"Well , I am buying the pencils for 50 cents a piece and I am selling 3 pencils for a dollar."
"How do you make money with that set up?"
"Volume, man, it's all in the volume!"
Last edited:
What the heck kind of chart is that???!!
Here's my chart on how many use a pie chart to show this kind of data and how many use an unnecessary, weird set of boxes...
Here's my chart on how many use a pie chart to show this kind of data and how many use an unnecessary, weird set of boxes...
Wow.
On the plus side, iOS is rather more stable than Android OS. (I've used the iPhone 3GS and AT&T Captivate. 3GS is far more stable.)
But as their revenue goes up, I hope that ad and game/app developers will be able to collect more than 70% of the revenue for each sale. Apple's iApps are of high quality, but most of the developers are getting a pittance. Still, if Angry Birds is deemed better than Crush the Castle or Cut the Rope, then I suppose anybody can make it big if they've got the ideal marketing skills...
I almost prefer the old-skool distribution process of bulk purchases and hoping the store sells all the copies. Bad apps will be ignored, but and maybe it's my ignorance here, I've never seen Microsoft take 30% of every sale for a Windows app. Not to mention, nixing the middle man (brick'n'mortar store) should mean passed savings to the customer. Not squeezing the developers that much more (albeit indirectly).
On the plus side, iOS is rather more stable than Android OS. (I've used the iPhone 3GS and AT&T Captivate. 3GS is far more stable.)
But as their revenue goes up, I hope that ad and game/app developers will be able to collect more than 70% of the revenue for each sale. Apple's iApps are of high quality, but most of the developers are getting a pittance. Still, if Angry Birds is deemed better than Crush the Castle or Cut the Rope, then I suppose anybody can make it big if they've got the ideal marketing skills...
I almost prefer the old-skool distribution process of bulk purchases and hoping the store sells all the copies. Bad apps will be ignored, but and maybe it's my ignorance here, I've never seen Microsoft take 30% of every sale for a Windows app. Not to mention, nixing the middle man (brick'n'mortar store) should mean passed savings to the customer. Not squeezing the developers that much more (albeit indirectly).
The rise of the smart phone over the feature (or "dumb") phone is annoying to me for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I have no interest in having a data plan. It's way to expensive when I live in a world where I have access to wifi the vast majority of the time. Now, if they would allow me to treat a data plan much the same way I do with my iPad 3G, only buying it when I have an actual need for it, I might consider it.
Second, I'm not that big a fan of the form factor. I like my small, compact feature phone. If a company were to try to make a compact smart phone, I know they'd run into screen size UI issues. So, instead they have phones that are fairly bulky to provide a good smart phone UI experience, but they lose some of the simple good phone experience.
Because of the profit issue, I have seen a growing derth of good feature phones on the market. My current phone I'm quite fond of. Unfortunately, if anything happens to it I'm out of luck. I've checked recently, and it seems that it is no longer available, and this is a phone that was introduced just two years ago. The new replacement model for it is . . . wait for it . . . a smart phone.
Second, I'm not that big a fan of the form factor. I like my small, compact feature phone. If a company were to try to make a compact smart phone, I know they'd run into screen size UI issues. So, instead they have phones that are fairly bulky to provide a good smart phone UI experience, but they lose some of the simple good phone experience.
Because of the profit issue, I have seen a growing derth of good feature phones on the market. My current phone I'm quite fond of. Unfortunately, if anything happens to it I'm out of luck. I've checked recently, and it seems that it is no longer available, and this is a phone that was introduced just two years ago. The new replacement model for it is . . . wait for it . . . a smart phone.
Last edited:
This is a classic example of how bad one can be misinformed and how bad one has the abilities to inference from any statistics.
I was merely arguing that the iPhone 4 is not a new product in Apple's catalogue. It has been on the shelf for almost a year now. It serves to show just how far ahead of the game it was when it was originally released - that the OP would consider it new, while the only 'upgrade' they have had to make, as such, is to the colour and carriers.
Another case of Apple's timeless designs.
The rise of the smart phone over the feature (or "dumb") phone is annoying to me for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I have no interest in having a data plan. It's way to expensive when I live in a world where I have access to wifi the vast majority of the time. Now, if they would allow me to treat a data plan much the same way I do with my iPad 3G, only buying it when I have an actual need for it, I might consider it.
Second, I'm not that big a fan of the form factor. I like my small, compact feature phone. If a company were to try to make a compact smart phone, I know they'd run into screen size UI issues. So, instead they have phones that are fairly bulky to provide a good smart phone UI experience, but they lose some of the simple good phone experience.
Because of the profit issue, I have seen a growing derth of good feature phones on the market. My current phone I'm quite fond of. Unfortunately, if anything haooens to it I'm out of luck. I've checked recently, and it seems that it is no longer available, and this is a phone that was introduced just two years ago. The new replacement model for it is . . . wait for it . . . a smart phone.
Now re-read your post. See what you're doing?
eating away at profit margin
I wonder how much profit margin is being eroded from Samsung and HTC, because the have to spend a lot of effort making dozens of phones that is so ever slightly different from each other?
Samsung and HTC can literally introduce a "new" phone every week. Slightly different plastic phone introductions gets old real quick.
I wonder how much profit margin is being eroded from Samsung and HTC, because the have to spend a lot of effort making dozens of phones that is so ever slightly different from each other?
Samsung and HTC can literally introduce a "new" phone every week. Slightly different plastic phone introductions gets old real quick.
Companies such as Exxon are so pivotal to the economy that they have to be protected by huge profits. If they were to fall into a financial crisis the nation would soon follow.
I think Samsung, HTC and others are still clueless to this. Design matters, and take the Razr by Motorola as an example. Unlike the Razr, where Motorola fails to innovate after the first launch, Apple continues to innovate. There is lots to say about design and aesthetics.
um... expressing my opinion of what my needs and wants are? At no point did I try to say that everyone should agree with me. So, what's wrong with stating my opinion and clearly demonstrating it as such?
Oh, and here are a couple of pie charts for those who have trouble with the somewhat odd area charts used in the report...
Attachments
Last edited:
Then the "normal" person is getting the shaft by ALL of the smartphone manufacturers. It's just that Apple is getting a bigger share than the others. Apple made a good product and marketed it well. More power to 'em.
Indeed, and I think PC manufacturers have caught on how nice the Apple model is and they wish they could do the same instead of their high volume/low margin/race to the bottom business. That's why you see Dell trying to create boutique lines of computers and laptops, where they can charge more for some fancy cases and beefed up specs. But as you note with the Razr example, it's really hard to keep innovating in this area. You might hit a home run once in a while, but to keep coming up with hits seems impossible for these guys.
I think they simply have no taste. They might stumble upon a Razr now and again, but then they will be just as proud as a Rokr and scratch their heads why the public doesn't respond. They simply have no clue. Their successes are almost random luck.
So you are saying normal people want the companies whose products they buy to be failures?
I guess that is why most normal people are in turn failures.
If a company makes good products and supports them well, I want them to be hyper succesful so they can keep doing the same. Apple is the blueprint for why this model works in spades.
Either that, or he's saying normal people want the companies whose products are sold at a loss...
I think Motorola did have a good designer (team), but management and/or marketing hacks took over. I agree with you. Apple cherishes and held design in the highest of regards. Jonathan Ive is probably the second most influential person at Apple. I think this is Apple's open secret. Having say this, the vast majority of people regardless of culture and country don't care for design and aesthetics; just look around your office and look at your co-workers attires.
Pretty much this. I have had Macintoshes since they first came out. I also remember not being able to get much software and worrying that the computer of my choice would no longer be an option in the future cause Apple couldn't keep themselves afloat. And I also remember when most software wasn't made for it either (you want something? Oh, it's PC only, sorry) cause there was little market to encourage developers to make a port for the Mac (never-mind actually making software specifically for the Mac. Oh yeah, and many ports were done halfheartedly. Some still are. I don't have Quicken on my computer cause it's more expensive and all the reviews talk about how it works a lot less well on the Mac and they left out some basic functions so I went and found an app made specifically for the Mac... it's nice I have that option now. Way back when, Quicken was your option).
I want them to be successful. At least then I know there will be at least one less thing to worry about the Mac disappearing (now of course there is the question of if Apple is moving away from the Mac).
Plus, it also means that if they are successful, more support from third parties for the mac (and my phone). Which means more software or accessories which is always a good thing if you use that product
. So them being successful helps me if I like their products cause I'll have more software to choose from and more accessories that might be useful to me.Don't call me a troll
I really don't get this. To be honest. It does seem weird to me that many if you are so happy with this news even though it is directly on your back.
I am not saying it is a bad thing they are making this money. I am saying it would be a good thing if they would sell the hardware for cheaper. The iPhone 4 without a doubt does not cost the same that it did 10 months ago. Why can these savings not be passed on to the end user. Especially when the user is purchasing 10 month old hardware with little revision in that time.
From what I can see this news should not really have the average (non share holding) consumer happy. Should they be mad. No they chose to buy the phone knowing how apple operates.
I really don't get this. To be honest. It does seem weird to me that many if you are so happy with this news even though it is directly on your back.
I am not saying it is a bad thing they are making this money. I am saying it would be a good thing if they would sell the hardware for cheaper. The iPhone 4 without a doubt does not cost the same that it did 10 months ago. Why can these savings not be passed on to the end user. Especially when the user is purchasing 10 month old hardware with little revision in that time.
From what I can see this news should not really have the average (non share holding) consumer happy. Should they be mad. No they chose to buy the phone knowing how apple operates.
Pickpocket vs. Apple
No.
Pickpocket: Comes alongside you and surreptitiously takes something from you without your knowledge or permission.
Apple (and other vendors): Gives you something you want in exchange for you knowingly and voluntarily giving them some money.
Do you recognize the difference? It's important.
No.
Pickpocket: Comes alongside you and surreptitiously takes something from you without your knowledge or permission.
Apple (and other vendors): Gives you something you want in exchange for you knowingly and voluntarily giving them some money.
Do you recognize the difference? It's important.