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Its quite easy to understand. Android market share does not separate phones sold by their respective companies. If we looked at a single android model by each company compared to the iPhone we would see market share and profits much differently.

Now if Android phones were sold by one manufacturer then we might have a valid comparison.

Your explanation is wrong.

Mobile phones come at hugely different prices. The cheapest ones that barely make phone calls for under $20, nicer ones for $100, really high end ones for $600 or higher. People have always bought cheap ones, nicer ones, and really high end ones, and the percentage in each category isn't changing much.

What has changed is that nowadays the "nicer ones for $100" are smartphones, and five years ago they were not. So five years ago "smartphone" market share was about the same as "market share among $600+ phones". Nowadays "smartphone" market share is the same as "market share among $100+ phones". Smartphones used to be 5% of all phones, nowadays they are 60-70%. In that category which covers more and more phones, Apple's percentage has dropped. If you count "$600+" phones only, or "all phones" counting everything from the cheapest to the most expensive, Apple's share has been growing.
 
Windows PC 2.0.

Apple will never have greatest market share, but they continue to lead by profit share, and isn't that the most important thing anyway for a company? To make as much profit as possible without overpricing your products? Apple is achieving that. The rest of the companies are making up for the per-device profit through shear quantity.

Don't solely view market share as an indication of Apple's success. It's not.
 
I have long left the iPhone for android and will never go back. I own several macs at home but I am very tired of the closed in nature of IOS products. My Note II is better than the iPhone

Your note is better for you.

Somebody else might want an iPhone. Battery life. Better software variety. 64 bit. Fingerprint scanner. Or whatever.

Not every phone is right for every person.

Apple is surging right now. Android is trying to skew the numbers to hide this.

No company is perfect. Apple tends to abuse the courts and try to patent stuff like pinch to zoom.

Samsung lies about specs and marketshare then pays people to lie.

Nothing is perfect. No Phone. No company.

Thank God there is a choice for consumers!
 
For one, I am talking about sending a file from your phone to someone electronically, You cannot send any file you want in your file system from IOS other than a photo via email or the web. And you cannot access the file system of your IOS device to any computer without some sort of 3rd party app. I simply plug my phone into my computer and I can see the entire file system internal and external drives.

Get off these forums please. You don't even know that iOS should be written with a lowercase "i". hahahaha. Amateurs.
 
Unfortunately for Apple, Android has caught up and is now a cheaper, and equivalent alternative. There's nothing special about the iPhone anymore, therefore most people can't see the point in paying more.

And yes, I no longer work for Apple because I had no interest in continuing to flog a dead horse.

Regarding your first point about Android being a cheaper, nearly equivalent alternative - you are right. Nobody is disputing that fact. But what you are ignoring in that point is the bigger picture. Just like Windows (largest market share) attracted the majority of the malware authors, so is Android. But people accept such realities as "normal". It's that mindset that Apple will continue to fight with.

But there is no fight when it comes to a healthy profit share. Apple is winning. So much for your dead horse point, eh?
 
Your explanation is wrong.

Mobile phones come at hugely different prices. The cheapest ones that barely make phone calls for under $20, nicer ones for $100, really high end ones for $600 or higher. People have always bought cheap ones, nicer ones, and really high end ones, and the percentage in each category isn't changing much.

What has changed is that nowadays the "nicer ones for $100" are smartphones, and five years ago they were not. So five years ago "smartphone" market share was about the same as "market share among $600+ phones". Nowadays "smartphone" market share is the same as "market share among $100+ phones". Smartphones used to be 5% of all phones, nowadays they are 60-70%. In that category which covers more and more phones, Apple's percentage has dropped. If you count "$600+" phones only, or "all phones" counting everything from the cheapest to the most expensive, Apple's share has been growing.

Market share is not always arranged by price point. Most of the market share I see reported lumps all Android phones in one category, both high and low priced.

While we could arrange by price point and even though we might see a cheap Android phone still out do it by marketshare. Apples marketshare could still be larger then compared to Android marketshare as a whole.
 
If Verizon, AT&T and Sprint announce that it will drop phone subsidies altogether and move in line with T-Mobile, how big of a drop would Apple stock price be?

Exactly. There is a very strong correlation between subsidy support within a country and market share. The carriers want to move away from subsidy models - especially those where they carry a higher percentage of the total. Look how synchronized the carriers have been about other big changes: dropping unlimited plans, adding family share plans, frequent update programs, etc. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the carriers move to a model where you pay for the whole phone and keep the monthly charges the same. That would force Apple's hand.
 
Regarding your first point about Android being a cheaper, nearly equivalent alternative - you are right. Nobody is disputing that fact. But what you are ignoring in that point is the bigger picture. Just like Windows (largest market share) attracted the majority of the malware authors, so is Android. But people accept such realities as "normal". It's that mindset that Apple will continue to fight with.

But there is no fight when it comes to a healthy profit share. Apple is winning. So much for your dead horse point, eh?

...except Apple's goal is market share despite making a decent profit per iPhone sold, I've seen and heard this first hand. Unfortunately, market share is directly linked to revenue - why don't we see those market share pie charts in iPad / iPhone keynotes anymore? Remember they used to roll that out every time?

Apple will always use the malware/virus argument, but just as it was with Windows, it's a hugely overstated problem made vocal by a company with a vested interest in generating fear.
 
How about the ability to send someone a file other than a photo natively, without the aid of an app? Or true multitasking, or external storage, or better maps or nicer screen size, customization, better sharing features, better keyboard choices, visible file system, better notifications, (apple realized this and copied) google now, (Siri is a joke), more free apps, unlock options, shall I go on.....

How can you say that Siri is a joke when you no longer use it? Siri is amazing, especially after the iOS 7 upgrade she received. Way more natural and intelligent, and only getting better. You position your argument as if Siri is a static thing that's not changing, but she's getting better on a regular basis.

As for not being able to send a file without use of an app, don't forget, iOS was built around the concept of apps. iOS gives you lots of ways to manage files. You're trying to argue that the operating system needs to provide that ability (one way) instead of using apps, yet you also argue that one of Android's benefits of that it gives you choice.

iOS is not as limited as you are trying to describe. You're just forcing it into your own little box definition to serve your needs and argument. Nice try.

(why are you here? trying to "help" people by converting them to your precious Android?)
 
Android leads because there are more different models from more different companies, which has the big negative of creating a fragmented user base.

I prefer the statistics that show ONLY quality flagship phones. Provides a much more realistic picture.
 
...except Apple's goal is market share despite making a decent profit per iPhone sold, I've seen and heard this first hand. Unfortunately, market share is directly linked to revenue - why don't we see those market share pie charts in iPad / iPhone keynotes anymore? Remember they used to roll that out every time?

Apple will always use the malware/virus argument, but just as it was with Windows, it's a hugely overstated problem made vocal by a company with a vested interest in generating fear.

Two things.

1) Yes, Apple will use market share to support their position when it's favourable to them, but don't mistake that as a GOAL for them. It's not. It's something to aim for, but not a primary reason for doing something. See the difference?

2) As for the malware problem, my viewpoint on that is not coming from Apple, as you suggest. Not. Nice try downplaying a well-known problem to suit your argument. :D
 
Two things.

1) Yes, Apple will use market share to support their position when it's favourable to them, but don't mistake that as a GOAL for them. It's not. It's something to aim for, but not a primary reason for doing something. See the difference?

2) As for the malware problem, my viewpoint on that is not coming from Apple, as you suggest. Not. Nice try downplaying a well-known problem to suit your argument. :D


Really? Apple are fine with not having a significant marketshare...they didn't want it anyway? Sorry, that's a very quaint idea but believe me Apple would LOVE to dominate the smartphone market. Why wouldn't they? The fact that they don't and won't is a result of selling an expensive closed system when there is an open source, comparable alternative that costs less. It's an old lesson they still haven't learned from the Mac Vs Windows days. Apple's natural position is that of a niche player; a boutique alternative to the mainstream.

Consider the difference if Apple had made iOS open source to any smartphone manufacturer from the start.

As for me downplaying malware/viruses....I didn't think I was, anyone with the slightest know-how about computers can take the simple steps needed to avoid such problems. If they really can't, that's an educational issue.
 
For one, I am talking about sending a file from your phone to someone electronically, You cannot send any file you want in your file system from IOS other than a photo via email or the web. And you cannot access the file system of your IOS device to any computer without some sort of 3rd party app. I simply plug my phone into my computer and I can see the entire file system internal and external drives.

Which means plugging in your phone via USB to a Mac has improved with new Android phones (I had the Captivate from 2011).

And yes, your point about transferring files seamlessly and accessing your file system directly is an Android advantage.

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The integration between iOS and OS X is probably unparalleled. By contrast, if you do not own a Mac, organising your files on an iPhone can be a painful task, precisely because it has no file management aside from iCloud or iTunes sync.

Yes, iPhone and Windows (or Linux) is a multi-step/part ordeal.

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Yep, the Galaxy flagships are plug and play.

With the updated Android 4.3 and 4.4, I expected this to be the case. Thanks for the reply.
 
...except Apple's goal is market share despite making a decent profit per iPhone sold, I've seen and heard this first hand. Unfortunately, market share is directly linked to revenue

I am not here to state an opinion whether Apple is doomed or not, but just wanted to say market share is not directly linked to revenue - Apple or not, there are multiple factors involved.
 
It sure doesn't seem to be helping companies like HTC to have the most "market share via Android"... ;).
 
It's because they make cheap off-contract phones. I would love to see a market share comparison of high end android phones (in iPhone price range) with the iPhone.

This is like comparing Hyundai, Honda, ford, Chevy, and dodge sales etc with audi, BMW, or Mercedes lol

Stop comparing the computer industry with the car industry. In the computer industry, OS platform categorization is the most essential factor, since developer support in the long run decides the life & death of the platform. Mac was technologically 5 years ahead of Windows in the mid-90s', but Mac had to shrink to an almost extinction because there were basically no more developer support exist.
 
Really? Apple are fine with not having a significant marketshare...they didn't want it anyway?

If gaining market share means competing for bottom of the bin, razor thin margins, then yes, its a place that Apple prefers not to go.

The niche market for Apple made them the most valuable tech market in the world. At one time the most valuable company in the world.


It's an old lesson they still haven't learned from the Mac Vs Windows days. Apple's natural position is that of a niche player; a boutique alternative to the mainstream.

Definitely Apple has learned from Microsoft.

1) Steve Jobs said Apple does not have to beat Microsoft to win. Which Apple was trying to do before Steve came back as CEO. Steve made Apple change direction and the rest is history.

2)Apple tried licensing out its operating system like Microsoft which failed miserably because it under sold its own computers. A mistake they are not likely to repeat.


Consider the difference if Apple had made iOS open source to any smartphone manufacturer from the start.

Definitely a bad decision. See #2 above.

Google does not really make much from Android except through maybe some services. Google actually makes much more money through iOS a money making platform.

Adding the fact that its iPhones/iPads helped lead to the decline to PC's and desktop computers tells a lot.
 
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Hasn't that been the case with Apple since forever? Go back 10-15 years and the same thing was being said about Macs and iPods. When did Apple ever compete on price and specs?

Correct. Hence why Android is slowly becoming top dog. Just like Windows did in the PC market.
 
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