Apple Market Share Problem Myth Ping!
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Posted on 12/27/2014 11:07:37 PM PST by Swordmaker
We’re close to the end of yet another year, but take heart! Some silly pundits made progress this year! Take Business Insider’s Jay Yarow, for example, who no longer believes market share is a problem for Apple. No, he just believes the perception of market share is a problem for Apple. OK, it’s pretty minimal progress but still...
“Apple Executives Apparently Think The Data Used To Measure Smartphone Market Share Is Garbage” (indirect link and a tip o’ the antlers to Steve Boothe)
Actually, what Apple says is “off the mark,” but you can’t write a Business Insider headline without BLAZZLEFROZZLE.
Since Apple started selling the iPhone, things have been pretty great for the company.
Actually, things have been pretty great since they started selling the iPod back in 2001. But go ahead, caller.
But there’s been one small nagging data point that’s not so great for Apple...
The nit-witted nay-sayer index?
...smartphone market share.
Oh, well, the Macalope was directionally correct. Because that’s the only group that obsesses over market share.
Market share doesn’t matter, for the most part.
At least Yarow has come to accept this fact, after years of reality intervention therapy. His boss, Henry Blodget, however, not so much. Blodget still believes that any day now, like crabs migrating across an island, driven by a complicated biological imperative, developers will summarily throw out Xcode and suddenly start coding in Java. Because to Blodget, market share means money. Only in this case it actually doesn’t mean money so they’d really just be doing it out of mass insanity.
As a result, developers have not bailed. They’ve done the opposite. They’re building for iOS first, and Android second, despite the market share disparity.
Still!
Still! I work at Business Insider and Apple doom is our business model so... here we are.
Pity Yarow who, despite knowing that market share is meaningless, has to come up with increasingly convoluted arguments for why it matters. The Macalope’s had crazy bosses before, who insisted things were one way despite all evidence to the contrary, so he can sympathize.
“Hey, Macalope. This thing that’s more expensive? We need a presentation showing that it’s actually cheaper.”
“Uhhh...”
“By 9:00 AM tomorrow.”
Aaaand that’s why he does this now. And has that twitch.
But did you know you can just create problems for people by talking about them? It’s true. In Business Insider world, anyway.
This market share thing remains a thorn in Apple’s side.
Whyyyyy?
People just don’t think the iPhone business can continue to succeed if its market share remains stalled.
People! They think this! It is a thing that people think! Who are these “people” of whom Yarow speaks? Well, his boss, mostly. But is his boss really “people”? There’s actually some evidence he’s a form of jerky-based lifeform. Some of it turkey, some of it teriyaki, but all of it jerky.
They view it as a long-term threat, despite Apple’s continued iPhone sales growth.
So very many indefinite pronouns believe this about Apple.
Having established this “fact,” Yarow will now helpfully find a solution for Apple as if the problem were actually market share and not his employment situation.
It seems like the only way for Apple to fix this market share “problem” is to lower prices to sell more phones...
“You don’t have a zombie virus working your way up your arm, but some people think you do, so we should cut your arm off to solve the ‘problem.’”
Now, who exactly has the “problem”? Is it Apple, or is it the serial jerky meats like Yarow’s boss who don’t understand market dynamics? Presumably educating Henry Blodget is off the table.
Buried in a Walt Mossberg column on Apple and Google is this tiny nugget, with our emphasis added: “In my conversations with Apple executives, they vehemently insist that market share isn’t—and won’t be—their goal, and even go so far as to say that most public market-share numbers are somehow off the mark, though they decline to explain how.”
Yarow notes that Apple’s the only company that regularly reports its smartphone sales. Market share numbers, therefore, have to be based on estimates of shipments of its competitors’ phones, which often go unsold (cough—Samsung—cough). Also, if we’re talking about what developers might be more interested in, installed base is probably more important and Apple’s devices retain their value longer.
The best thing for Apple to do, though, is to keep doing what it’s been doing.
It turns out what’s most important for Business Insider is writing a piece about an Apple problem. Even if that problem is one they made up.
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Same reason the Windoze crowd claim there’re no viruses for OS X.
It can’t be the underlying superior technology, right?
There are only two things that are infinite.People who gauge business success based on greater market share alone are fundamentally misguided. They're like someone who gauges progress toward a destination based on greater speed alone.One is The Universe.
The other is Human Stupidity.
And I'm not completely sure about The Universe.
Speed is good, but it only results in progress if it's in the direction of the destination. If your greater speed is applied by going in circles, you're not getting closer to the destination. But if your lesser speed is applied consistently in the direction of the destination, you are making progress.
Market share alone is like going rapidly in circles. It's a low-end strategy. You sell lots of product, but you're not making a lot of profit.
Selling fewer units at much higher profit is a different business model, and as in Apple's case, it can be tremendously successful if your product is desired by people willing to pay your price. That is a high-end strategy. And it works very successfully.
Because to be long-term successful in a free market, you have to be making a profit. It's really quite simple to understand.
Smart business people understand this. 'Nuff said.
"Sure, I lose a little on each unit. But I make it up in VOLUME!"It's a joke.
Just like the people gauging success on market share alone, which is also a joke.
Real success = Profit per unit (times) number of units sold.
It's really quite simple. But some people prefer jokes, I guess.
“The best thing for Apple to do, though, is to keep doing what it’s been doing.”
What a great way to go out of business - provide stale bread for people to munch on.
Smug sells, until it doesn’t.
What a great way to go out of business - provide stale bread for people to munch on. -troll
Hahahahahahaaaaaa... Idjits say the darnedest things!!! Apple became the wealthiest company in the WORLD by doing the same again and again!!!
Day's Range: 112.01 - 114.52
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Volume: 33,720,951
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Market Cap: 668.53B
“Apple became the wealthiest company in the WORLD by doing the same again and again!!!”
The same held true for IBM. Perhaps you should go back and re-learn your history.
“Smug sells, until it doesn’t.”
Hear, Hear!
IBM went down because of the secondary market that developed from Microsoft providing software to dozens (hundreds) of other vendors. Also, they were behind the curve that Apple created with the advent of the desktop (personal) computer. IBM failed to innovate, which is where Apple excels.
i don't think I need a history lesson. I have the facts! Maybe you want to look at those.
Save your Apple porn for somebody who gives a damn.
You know very little about the demise of IBM. I owned stock in the company starting back in 1958. If Apple doesn’t get its head out of its keyster, it will follow its predecessors into the wastebasket of history.
My uncle was Personnel Manager for the world office in NY. I inherited his stock, as I was his favorite nephew. I know plenty more than you give credit.
But, if you didn't give a damn, you would not have been so avid to post on this thread! HaHahahahahaaaaaa.
Apple's head is in the clouds, FRiend, and you can post all the BS you wish. I'm not worried about the IBM stock I converted to APPL... and have seen grow into a bonanza!
I promise to stomp my ipad to bits and pieces if Apple gives up its Chinese slave labor model of manufacturing. This is a second Opium War upon the essence of Chinese civilization and is bringing a slave worker rebellion.
Read the chapter on China in this book to understand China’s corrupt model of economic growth that is doomed for failure and Apple along with it. A huge parasitic-capitalist class of princelings and their higher IQ henchman will bring down the Chinese economic model that is dazzling everyone with its 30 years long continuous growth.
The Apple economic model is to hitch a ride on parasites which never works out long term
The Death of Money: The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System Hardcover – April 8, 2014
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Money-Collapse-International-Monetary/dp/1591846706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419767427&sr=8-1&keywords=death+of+money
IBM failed to innovate, which is where Apple excels.
_________________________________________
There, you have it!! Innovation and quality of product is key. Keep building a better mousetrap, and people will buy it at a higher price because of innovation and quality. Those who use both Apple and Microsoft products understand the differences that set the two apart.
Smug sells, until it doesn’t.
Marketshare doesn't matter. Just ask Nokia.
Good grief this is a stupid thread. Friggin' cult of Apple.
I noticed that if I settle for the drugs made in India, for my thyroid and blood pressure meds, are super cheap, like $13 for Three months. The brand name meds made in USA cost me about $84 a Month. This is all After Insurance Payment. The ones made in India are inferior, the dosage and main ingredient are NOT correct. So I can settle for the cheap foreign meds that don’t do anything, or I can pay a LOT MORE and get American made drugs that do work. The same thing with MOST things we buy. We used to be able to have appliances and electronics repaired when they were made in America. Now they break down after less than a year, they used to work 20 years. And it is cheaper to buy some more cheap crap, than to have them repaired. Sure having cheap crap makes everything more affordable for everyone, but it is just cheap crap made by slave labor, or low wage workers....
If all Apple was selling was "smug", they would have gone out of business years ago, or at least had to cut WAY back on production. Smug only sells for a little while, if excellent design, quality manufacturing, and helpful support are not all there also.
Apple's business model is not built on smug, it's built on designing high-end quality products and supporting them. That's not likely to earn them majority marketshare, which belongs to the bottom-feeders and mid-range vendors, but it obviously earns them the majority of the profit.
Their success has nothing to do with "smug". As long as they continue to push the innovation curve and make good products for the high end of the market, they'll do fine.
Anybody remember that 1984 Superbowl commercial?
Sure, it was a poke at Big Blue (IBM, i.e. the IBM-PC) using Orwell's 1984 story of Big Brother. It's considered one of the greatest ads in history for a variety of reasons.
What about it?
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