I have to say today that Apple has done a pretty good job of hanging onto share in the face price cutting, Jobs' death, and other challenges and I think the announcements today are a pretty good positive for market share going forward. I don't think Apple is giving it up easily. I second this. With Android's runaway lead, Jobs' departure, and incredible competing products with dwindling prices, I thought Apple's profits would have been declining by now. They've done nothing short of a phenomenal job of hanging on. I attribute it primarily to brilliant marketing, but also to the nature of their user base (wildly loyal, and perhaps more importantly, very unlikely to try anything else because they're so happy where they are). IMO, tt's this latter reason in particular that has allowed Apple to hang on so well... you can ask any happy iPhone user, "have you tested or otherwise learned about/used a smartphone running Android 4.3 or newer?" and the answer will almost always be "no - why would I?" As long as Apple can keep that phenomena in place, I think they can keep hanging on, but the second that a substantial portion of their users actually start examining other options, I think the profit gig is up (no, Apple won't fade into obscurity... I just think profits will contract).
I've been where he is on Apple, and I think opening the platform a bit might not be a terrible idea, if it could be done profitably. I certainly wouldn't take it to the extreme of the Google approach, but there is a lot of value in the operating systems that is likely untapped because of the closed platforms. I get giddy thinking about Apple doing this, Yes, I think they should do the Google approach (so I differ with you there), but merely making strong moves in the openness/choice department would be huge unto itself. The keyboard (which I just learned of) and the widget and developer changes today were all in the right direction. It's so off-putting for Apple fans to imagine, but if they actually started to allow other OSs on their hardware, other ad platforms to monetize use, etc., I know they'd explode to the upside. I just hope I catch wind of any such move before they actually do it... I'd probably buy at $800 if they did this. |
