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mobilehavoc

mobilehavoc

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 30, 2007
377
12
I've been around long enough to know that not so long ago Apple had the best hardware/OS and apps on the market although limited to Apple hardware, while the PC was woefully behind. Then Windows picks up steam, supports multiple hardware platforms (better or worse) and the rest is history.

Now recently iPhone comes out with revolutionary OS and develops a huge user and app base but is limited to Apple hardware. Then Android comes along, hits stride and supports multiple hardware platforms, etc. Already passes 100k apps in short time, growth is off the charts.

It's quite puzzling how Jobs and Apple don't see the writing on the wall. Can they really be that stupid?

Unless they want to be the niche in the mobile space they need to open up to multiple hardware platforms/form factors, etc. If nothing else, developers will start moving away from iPhone to where the $ and users are - similar to Mac and PCs.
 
The Mac Clone market came VERY close to killing the Apple corporation entirely.

Question:

If we're just going to go by the "history always repeats itself" model, then wouldn't your advice be terrible advice since the last time they tried it Apple almost went out of business?

(Note that I personally don't believe history is repeating itself here. But since you do then I have to ask why you want Apple to repeat one of their biggest mistakes.)
 
Tight integration between hardware and software is one of Apple's defining characteristics, and I believe the "magic" of the iPhone and iPad would be impossible without this approach. Dropping hardware exclusivity would be to abandon a core Apple value, whether you agree with their strategy or not.

Besides that, the dollars speak. Apple is now a bigger company than Microsoft. Windows killed MacOS on market share, but Apple still managed to eke out a #1 position, decades later, by applying their vision to an entirely different segment.
 
I am no apple fan by any means but why does this bother you? You have a phone hardware wise that goes with it's software near perfectly. So what if apple "losing" the phone war that just means a better product from them. Competition is good and Apple isn't dying anytime soon.
 
Umm..the reason why Apple is successful is their fusing of hardware/software. Jobs said this too at MacWorld 2007.

Thousands of different hardware would require different drivers/resolutions and things would more likely crash/run into issues.

I think Apple knows what their doing. Just because the lost Desktop computing doesn't mean they'll lose the smartphone war.
 
I don't think Apple gives a **** about this sort of thing. They are still making profits every quarter. They don't need to change a thing.
 
spblat said:
Tight integration between hardware and software is one of Apple's defining characteristics, and I believe the "magic" of the iPhone and iPad would be impossible without this approach. Dropping hardware exclusivity would be to abandon a core Apple value, whether you agree with their strategy or not.

Besides that, the dollars speak. Apple is now a bigger company than Microsoft. Windows killed MacOS on market share, but Apple still managed to eke out a #1 position, decades later, by applying their vision to an entirely different segment.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you.
 
Another important point:

Microsoft's dominance over desktop computing in the 90's and 2000's was a weird, weird aberration. That doesn't happen too much in most markets.

Pretty much everyone agrees that the smartphone world will eventually settle down onto 3 or 4 systems with no one that's a dozen times larger than the others. There's no signs it'll ever shrink to 2 main options like we had with desktop computers.

The fact that we only had 2 choices there was a fluke. It won't be that way this time.
 
Hype2k2 said:
I am no apple fan by any means but why does this bother you? You have a phone hardware wise that goes with it's software near perfectly. So what if apple "losing" the phone war that just means a better product from them. Competition is good and Apple isn't dying anytime soon.
Click to expand...

With any market, when you use the product that has a minority of the market share, you don't get as much third party support.

With the iPhone, that could be accessories and Apps.

Personally, I agree with the above poster - I think the market can easily support Android, WebOS, iOS and Blackberry in some form or another (plus whatever Nokia decides to stick with!).

Forgot Windows Phone 7! We'll have to wait and see on that one.
 
Apple will always have its fanboy base. They have nothing to worry about. Even if they end up number 2 to droid. Their customer base is still big and loyal.
 
Not likely especially that everyone waits to see what Apple delivers then they try to match or beat it. Trust me Apple will not sit by and let everyone ride over them, they are not going anywhere and the fact is Mac sales just grew faster and more units, so ppl are getting sick and tired of Windows and virus's and the like and the iPhone is set to be on a record sales pace.

Apple will take that to the bank with nearly what like $65 Billion in Cash?
 
I own, use and enjoy Apple products. Apart from my Macbook and iPad I bought an iPhone 2G on launch and then iPhone 3G. I'm using and loving Android right now but the point is it's not good business for Apple IMHO.

Even now with higher marketshare than before with OSX, apps and especially games are hard to come by on Macs. As a developer with limited resources (esp in a tough economy) do you develop for something with 90% marketshare or 10%?

I have an iPad and it's great but soon there'll be a ton of Android tablets on the market too. So there'll be real competition on that front too.

So much of Apple's revenue comes from iPhone/iOS now that losing share will hit their bottom line.

Oh, I also own AAPL stock. :)
 
Daveoc64 said:
With any market, when you use the product that has a minority of the market share, you don't get as much third party support.

With the iPhone, that could be accessories and Apps.

Personally, I agree with the above poster - I think the market can easily support Android, WebOS, iOS and Blackberry in some form or another (plus whatever Nokia decides to stick with!).

Forgot Windows Phone 7! We'll have to wait and see on that one.
Click to expand...

Worrying about 3rd party apps and accessories at this point in time is ridculous. iPhone is the face of smart phones for awhile just hope that Apple keeps with competition and keeps the future iPhones innovative.
 
The marriage of hardware and software is a big part of Apple's success. By comparison on the Android or Windows side you have underpowered or poorly designed phones and computers that totally bring even a good OS down.

I recently went to a phone store to get a new plan for my upcoming iPhone4 and while waiting tried a number of Android phones. Everything but the Samsung Galaxy S felt a bit clunky even though they probably run the same version of Android just with different hardware and vendor customization.
 
mobilehavoc said:
I have an iPad and it's great but soon there'll be a ton of Android tablets on the market too. So there'll be real competition on that front too.
Click to expand...

Apple sold close to 4 million iPad's by now ... how will Android catch up to that? The first Android tablet just came out, forgot the name, but it got a horrible review on Engadget. And by the time it will be Apple will have an iron grip on the market.
 
Gen said:
Apple sold close to 4 million iPad's by now ... how will Android catch up to that? The first Android tablet just came out, forgot the name, but it got a horrible review on Engadget. And by the time it will be Apple will have an iron grip on the market.
Click to expand...

Same could have been said about the iPhone except it was just surpassed by Android sales. I don't believe there's such a thing as an iron grip in the mobile space.
 
Why does it matter if Apple is behind Android? I use a Mac because I like it better than Windows, it wouldn't matter if Apple was number one or number 5, I would use it anyway. It's the same thing with the iPhone.

Also, keep in mind that being on top or number one probably doesn't foster much innovation.
 
mobilehavoc said:
Same could have been said about the iPhone except it was just surpassed by Android sales. I don't believe there's such a thing as an iron grip in the mobile space.
Click to expand...

It's not exactly difficult to surpass iPhone in sales when there are a gazillion Android phone models on the market by several manufacturers. That also doesn't mean that the Android phones are actually better.
 
mobilehavoc said:
Same could have been said about the iPhone except it was just surpassed by Android sales. I don't believe there's such a thing as an iron grip in the mobile space.
Click to expand...

The "Android has highest sales" argument is virtually moot.

There are more phones that run Android on more networks, I'll give you that. But bear in mind, over the time that those reports cover, the iPhone 4 details had already been leaked (*cough*stolen*cough*), so you can bet that there were many customers holding off on an iPhone purchase until the iPhone 4 came out.

Let's wait until the next report comes out and talk then.
 
mobilehavoc said:
Same could have been said about the iPhone except it was just surpassed by Android sales. I don't believe there's such a thing as an iron grip in the mobile space.
Click to expand...

Umm that was only for the quarter. Overall there are still more iPhones in the world than Android phones. So yes Android caught up on a quarter-by-quarter standpoint, but they still haven't caught up to all of the iPhones that were sold before Android existed.

And like it has also been stated iPhone sales were slow in that quarter due to the expectance of the iPhone 4. iPhone unlike Android has a very controlled product cycle as there is only one iPhone announced each year and so the whole iPhone market comes close to a halt in May and early June, whereas Android has phones being updated at random intervals throughout the year.
 
1.) Da paast
2.) Da presaant
3.) Da futjura

Oh is too much for my littal brain, I just talk as answa what I want!

Undastaand?

No. It's difficult much much.
 
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