Apple Cannot Handle More Than 5-Percent

[brianmoz]

ha you are making predictions, and you are gonna look silly when time tells what happens. NO one has a clue what is going to happen.

 

[wotan31]

Who cares about market share? Apple is making a killing, turning record profits quarter after quarter, and delivering innovative and high quality computers that people want. A lot of people want. But many cannot afford the premium price for a premium product. Fine. So what? Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, what percent of market share do they have of all new cars? .00001 percent? They are a premium product and market only to a certain segment - just like the Mac, it's not a generic one-size-fits all mass-market solution, it's a premium niche product for discerning customers. Sure, they want to sell their products and make sales, but they don't give a crap about overall market share.

 

[brianmoz]

[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom] Mac, it's not a generic one-size-fits all mass-market solution, it's a premium niche product for discerning customers. [/citation]
Thank you . I have to say the problem i have with the mac hating crowd is you act as if mac was forcing themselves on people or something. A certain group of people like their products and enjoy using them. If your not in that group it is ok, get pissed about real atrocities and not because a company has a product or attitude you dont like.

 

[Powersworder]

That was an excellent article, I enjoyed it immensely. The thought of Apple being reduced to a tiny niche market in the phone industry just like they have been in the home PC market brought a smile to my face.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]Who cares about market share? Apple is making a killing, turning record profits quarter after quarter, and delivering innovative and high quality computers that people want. A lot of people want. But many cannot afford the premium price for a premium product. Fine. So what? Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, what percent of market share do they have of all new cars? .00001 percent? They are a premium product and market only to a certain segment - just like the Mac, it's not a generic one-size-fits all mass-market solution, it's a premium niche product for discerning customers. Sure, they want to sell their products and make sales, but they don't give a crap about overall market share.[/citation]
I think what the dude is trying to say is not so much market share as seeing the drop in market value from it's primary income source, should the iPhone take a big hit, seeing as it got such a deep penetration already.

The car analogy works well here, imagine that for some reason Ferrari got massivelt popular with ordinary people and demand pushed manufacturing over and above it's normal 0.000001% to some kind of market leader in the 20's or 30's of percentages. They would have huge manufacturing car plants in lots of countries the same way Toyota or Nissan do. But the big money maker here is parts & accessories, upselling bucket seats or go-faster stripes and the success of the after-market products is pretty much what keeps the whole company afloat.

Suddenly a new car comes along that is selling hand-over-fist faster than the Ferrari. If previous Ferrari drivers jump ship to the new car then the after-market products won't have a car to go into and Ferrari will be left with a bloated manufacturing infrastructure and a million bucket seats that they can't sell.

You wanted to use car analogies, how do you like that one?

 

[bachok83]

realize that consumers have a brain

what a terrible thing to say.. most technology pundits said bad things about iPad and that didnt stop 'brained' consumers from hopping on the bandwagon to 'walled garden party'

 

[HD Boy]

This is a typical Tom's anti-Apple rant that caters to the PC-based advertisers supporting this Web site and the frustrated Windows customers that make it necessary. You guys have to write stuff like this to ease your inner pain over having to use to all the computer products that copy everything Apple. If Apple hadn't created a commercially successful graphical user interface back in 1984, we'd all still be typing command lines onto a black screen with a pixelated, blinking green cursor.

I've been a happy Cupertino customer for 25 years, but even I have never believed that any company, including Apple or Google will dominate the cellular space. What I know is this: the Apple iPhone has exceeded my expectations for a cell phone and a portable computer. For all your hand-wringing, the simple reality is that Apple's products changed the computer, music and cellular industries forever, and you can expect more upheaval to come to industries like home entertainment and even car audio, as soon as Jobs and crew can get to them.

Apple is what it is and you either like their products or you don't. But the company is here to stay, as is their growth. You can bash it and bypass its terrific products for cheap knock-offs, but you cannot deny its influence or long lists of innovations and inventions.

So, stop worrying and just enjoy Apple's products -- or your knockoffs -- for what they are.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]HD Boy[/nom]This is a typical Tom's anti-Apple rant that caters to the PC-based advertisers supporting this Web site and the frustrated Windows customers that make it necessary. You guys have to write stuff like this to ease your inner pain over having to use to all the computer products that copy everything Apple. If Apple hadn't created a commercially successful graphical user interface back in 1984, we'd all still be typing command lines onto a black screen with a pixelated, blinking green cursor.[/citation] Don't you mean If xerox didn't created the GUI back in 1981, we'd all still be typing command lines onto a black screen with a pixelated, blinking green cursor? The Xerox 8010 was also the first computer to ship with a bundled mouse. How about the Amiga and Atari that brought color to the GUI? These three companies to me are the one that truly revolutionized the computers back in the day.

Why do you think most PC users are anti-apple but don't have a problem with other systems? Usually it's because of the arrogant attitude of Mr. Jobs and certain apple users.

 

[sykozis]

[citation][nom]FATAL STR1K3[/nom]Only a matter of time until Apple is just another company trying to compete with the big fishes. I have to say, I am glad that the iPhone is not on top..[/citation]

If Google can avoid shooting themselves in the foot, Apple may very well become simply another company that went bankrupt.

[citation][nom]dassox[/nom]Something tells me this time though, Google won't have to bail out Apple so that they still have someone to compete against like Microsoft had to.[/citation]

Google does have the huge advantage of having other competition.....even if they can't compete on the same level. MS though, may be forced to bail out Apple again to perserve market competition in the OS market unless Google finally manages to launch their OS. If Google bankrupts Apple, it would leave Microsoft essentially unchallenged in the OS market as far as the US Gov't is concerned. The US Gov't still doesn't consider Linux to be a competing product.

 

[HD Boy]

Oh...and one more thing...the comparisons work both ways. However, this anti-Apple rant totally ignores the distinct possibility that Google is repeating the same mistakes Microsoft made...taking on legions of "partners" that produce cheap, mediocre products in a race to the bottom. And this time, instead of inept vision and security, it may be the lack of a walled garden and the open architecture that invites hackers, spyware and malware to another platform with security problems.

 

[jecastej]

We are talking here today about Apple "losing" or declining its momentum on cellphones sales and even on some value lost from its brand name (I need to check on real numbers to see how this is affecting Apple) but Apple was no one in this segment 3 years ago. And Apple may not started the smartphones revolution or the tablets but it toped the list in a short time, the ratings are high and it brought the touchscreen and GI to a new level. Is not about you liking it or approving it, or Apple inventing something "new" or even about being the best in everything they do. But Apple demonstrated it is a formidable opponent and a contender no one can't ignore today. Also I don't like to much this "new" Apple as I don't really care for iPhones or gadgets.

So is not black and white. Apple has being predicted out of the market 15 years ago and still today it tops the market at some points and it grew a lot again. How healthy this round will be for Apple? I don't know. This is when I agree with this article about Apple not handling well a bigger piece of the market. And I may be wrong. But also I am convinced Apple doesn't want or care for more than 10% of the market. We don't hear frequently Apple is hiring a lot of people or buying a lot of companies either. Just hand picked engineers and even smaller companies and you know Apple have a big pile of cash. Personally I would like Apple to hire more people and dedicate more brains to solve problems everywhere.

About Apple partners there is a lot of frustration and interest involve from every side and this frustration is part of the business and the entire industry. Not a part I like but is real and everyone needs to handle this.

 

[Vladislaus]

[citation][nom]HD Boy[/nom]Oh...and one more thing...the comparisons work both ways. However, this anti-Apple rant totally ignores the distinct possibility that Google is repeating the same mistakes Microsoft made...taking on legions of "partners" that produce cheap, mediocre products in a race to the bottom. And this time, instead of inept vision and security, it may be the lack of a walled garden and the open architecture that invites hackers, spyware and malware to another platform with security problems.[/citation]

Interesting because at "PWN to OWN" hacker challenge at CanSecWest the iphones are the ones more easily hacked, not android.

Legions of partners that produce cheap mediocre products? Apple have many partners that are also android partners. The Apple A4 is a package on package system-on-a-chip that has an ARM CPU with a PowerVR GPU (these CPUs/GPUs power many android phones). This PoP-SoC is manufactured by samsung. Same thing with the iphone display which is manufactured by samsung.

 

[hemelskonijn]

I don't really get how you can compare an operating system with a product line. What your saying about Android might be correct since it is a great platform and since it has a lot of support from many manufactures and suppliers it is safe to say that it will grow as a platform. On the other hand the iphone is a niche product and though i don't care for the iphone loads of people seem to. The market position of apple is not tied to the incline or decline of android devices but only the sales figures of their own products. The market for smart-phones mid's and other small low power systems is growing and there is enough room to keep the apple lovers going for a long time to come. Also Apple is not new to chips and has designed created and manufactured a lot of PPC chips together with motorola and IBM those chips where in fact a huge part of the reason that apple regained market share in the late 90's all the way to lets say 2004. Their chips where always better value for money specially if you used software that was optimized fort he powerpc's. Now lets say that they did have a 4% market share in the days of the G4's ... one must agree that it is a massively impressive achievement specially taking in account that apart from hugely expensive workstations nearly any one switched to x86!

Now for the future i find it hard to believe apple will switch platform again but who knows. Point i tried to make is simple apple is depending on its own sales not on android based devices their sales.

 

[K-zon]

I like alot of apples ideas what they made and have to offer with products, just idk. I got one of their mp3 players, its either cause its old or when trying to format it and install new songs i messed something up or something, still works, but i'd rather spend 100 bucks on a cd player.

 

[abcdeasdfasdf]

"Contained" sounded like something like Swine Flu to be quarantined; in a way I think it is the right word.

iStuff aside; Apple Computers is THE company love to hate. Stylish is the only thing going for them, not much of a tech company. In more ways than one being stylish was the startup principal back in the 1970s as complete assemblies versus kit computers.

 

[xerroz]

Like i always said, apple has no more than one or two decades, after that it will be the little fish struggling to survive before it dies off. Google will be next and in the end, Microsoft will come out top. The raeson being is that in the long run, what microsoft produces and will produce is far more beneficial. Companies will easily take over google when something even better than a website comes out. Computers and electronics will always exist and will always need an OS - windows.