The predictions of Apple’s demise have been almost nonstop since the 1980s. They were especially loud in the 90s. Of course, they were all wrong then. Who knows what will happen in the future. But based on the accuracy of the predictions in the past, there’s a good chance that Apple will be around for a long time.
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/death_knell
iPhone sales were up 20% in the most recent quarter. That’s what this conversation which you started was about. Apple’s iOS is about 13% of all smartphones sold.
Windows phones are 3.7% of the world market, although it is second behind Android in the Latin American market — not much economic growth there for some reason. Brazil has tariffs on the iPhone, because that’s where the money is.
Android OS is sold on a lot of platforms, some of which actually have survived long enough for the manufacturers to intro an updated model. To get a look at really inexpensive Android tablets, it’s easy enough to go to a Big Lots, and there are even more available on the Big Lots website. The big growth area for Android may be in Chromebooks, which are a notch up from trying to use a tablet, at least for us older-timers. The main problem going forward will be to maintain interest by hardware manufacturers.
The funk in the tablet market (declined in the most recent quarter, but that was up half again over the same q of last year) is attributed to the lack of a new iPad model — there appears to be an autumn rollout in the offing, sufficiently ahead of the 2013 Christmas season, and to include an entry-level iPhone intro, and an iPad refresh, and perhaps one more thing.
As I said above, the smartphone market has grown — in large part thanks to Apple — and Apple’s market share has shrunk, and its profit margins have naturally declined, but the number of iPhones sold has not declined. Also, Apple is the number one seller, and the current iPhone model is always the largest selling smartphone, period.