How Apple is destroying Android from the inside out

“You know what they say about the obvious. ‘Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.’ So it is with the ongoing battles between Apple’s iOS devices and Google’s Android,” Kate MacKenzie writes for Mac360. “On the surface, at first view, and as promulgated ad nauseam by today’s short sighted tech pundits, Android is winning. How so? Market [unit] share. Elsewhere in the forest, almost out of sight, Apple is slowly destroying Android.”

“Apple has managed to capture almost 80-percent of the entire cellphone industry’s profits, leaving the rest to desperate Samsung (which spends nearly 10 times Apple on advertising and promotions),” MacKenzie writes. “Nearly 70-percent of mobile ad revenue is generated by iOS devices. That’s a two-to-one lead over Android devices, despite Android having three times the market share. What’s going on?”

MacKenzie writes, “It’s usage. It’s ecosystem. It’s quality vs. mediocrity.”

Read more in the full article here.

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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Tera O’Brien” for the heads up.]

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26 Comments

  1. Larry Ballmer Page: “How well is your thermonuclear war going apple”
    Apple: “I Have 80% of the SmartPhone profits and 70% on the Mobile Ads, So what do you think? How much money you have from the left overs?”

    1. Imagine Michael Dell’s eyes, Larry Page’s teeth, Bill Gates’ glasses, Steve Balmer’s sweaty hair … that’s enough to make Melissa Meyer laugh!

      … excuse me while I get this mental image surgically removed …

      1. Just curious, how does one “surgically” (physically) remove something mental (mental image)? Other than removing the brain? And now that that mental image has gone viral, how does the entire meme get surgically removed?

  2. What I find funny and peculiar to observe every time I visit Korea and China is that most people don’t really seem to understand the concept of an integrated ecosystem. I’ve seen a lot of people with an Android phone, an iPad and a Windows PC. The three devices are an island on their own although they’ll keep a few things like contacts and calendar in sync through Google or whatever. But, overall, they’re managing two or three different platforms that are loosely held together by their usage of the Internet.

    I do see that once they get comfortable with one iDevice, they are willing to get another to sync with each other. But the Mac is a different story. They’re so entrenched with Windows over there that a switch to Mac is considered a rather risky proposition. They always complain about the lack of software for the Mac compared to Windows in their native languages. But the truth is that 90% of the time they’re using Office at work and the remainder is spent surfing the web.

    Old habits are indeed hard to break. Why do Windows laptop users carry around a mouse along with a mouse pad/wrist rest and their brick power supplies? It’s comical to see all these people show up at meetings with all this stuff and then feverishly plug this into that and that into this before the meeting starts. Normally, all I’d have is an iPad with a stylus for taking notes and Logitech keyboard cover if I need to type up something fast.

    And people there are certainly noticing how much simpler things could be just using an iPad and the Apple ecosystem. When I really show them how iCloud and other cloud services work across all my iDevices and the MBA to keep virtually every little detail in sync, they are really blown away. Yet, they are so conditioned by mediocrity that, even if they could afford it, they stick with their Lenovo, Acer, and Samsung PC’s instead of going all Apple.

    So the migration there is taking longer but it’s happening. I see more and more MBP’s and MBA’s everywhere I go in China and Korea. The more upscale the neighborhoods, the more Apple stuff you will see.

    1. One of the problems with a Mac remains the awful quality and horrid performance of MS Office on Mac. I use a Mac at work (older 8-core Mac Pro), but always end up using the PC version of Office via Parallels. Why can’t MS make a great version of Office for the Mac? Or why won’t someone make a fantastic Mac office suite that is truly compatible with Office? This would make it a lot more palatable for many to move away from their PC to a Mac.

      1. Unfortunately, neither of those scenarios is possible, and it’s all to do with Microsoft.
        In the first instance, of course they have no interest in making the Mac version any better than the bare bones. They will never embrace modern Mac development paradigms such as iCloud or even the UI, trying to import the conventions from Windows such as the Ribbon.
        The second is a little more subtle, but the bottom line is that even IF a third party developer (from the perspective of MS, which would include Apple with iWork) were to clone every single bullet-point feature of the entire MS Office suite – a tall order considering the age of the project – it still would never be good enough because the file formats will be incompatible. And they will always be incompatible because it has been historically shown to be trivial for Microsoft to alter the file format in a way that intentionally breaks compatibility with outside file readers, yet still retain backwards compliance with older versions of Word.

      2. Essentially, it’s impossible for Apple to beat Microsoft at its own game – that being Office. And Windows. In sorta the same way that Microsoft can’t beat Apple at any part of IT’S own game (integrating hardware and software). The closer you get, the more the minor shortcomings stick out.

      3. The answer to your questions lies in your last sentence, Rick. THAT is what Microsloth is trying to avoid. Through the years to force people to move away from Macs they purposely sabotage or kill anything they make for Mac: Internet Explorer: killed that years ago. Windows Media Player: Killed that, so someone created Flip4Mac. Fkd up a recent version of Office’s Excel not to run Macro’s. I feel like I’m forgetting some others…

        1. More like perspective in this case. And let’s face it, perspective is like statistics. You can make statistics work in your favor without much trouble. I do agree with the writer however. But that’s just my perspective. My opinion is just that, my own opinion.

        2. Perspective sounds like a close relative to perception that has the potential (deception) to negate facts.

          Also agree with the writer because the numbers sounded more comprehensive than selective.

          Agree, statistics can be manipulated. Simply Google “how to lie with statistics.” Did I say Google? Apologies! 🙂

  3. The market-share situation is still important. That’s how Windows became the monolith it did. And as we saw there, once it takes hold, like cancer it can become near impossible overcome. It took mobile, with the ability to completely side-step Windows that enabled others to thrive. So the threat of market-share is still a worry. Android is getting better all the time. Apple has to be vigilant.

    1. “Android is getting better all the time.”

      Android is getting better from a base of being truly awful, and it is only barely starting to catch up on the very top end running on top speed processors with the fluidity that iPhone had in 07, five years ago. That would be great for Android but for the fact it’s not a single platform but rather a fragmented mess of semi compatible platforms, running on well over 2 thousand devices. Android publishers who are serious have a set over well over 1,000 devices they test on, which is far from being complete.

      Android is not a platform, but rather a series of platforms, most of which are not even really smartphones at all, but glorified large screen feature phones.

  4. I still have to argue that whole market-share bullshit. They “ship” more phone, OK but….so what? When you are giving them away for free and what is the turn-over rate at which these cheap phones are returned, broken and replaced?

    Think about that for a minute. They should do a study to find out how many Android phones does someone go through during their 2 year contract compared to an iPhone.

    Example: A guy (not my friend) gets his new Android phone and within 3 months starts complaining about issues with the phone. He goes back and they give him a new one for free and a few months later it breaks and he has the insurance which he gets another phone. Within 18 months he ends up with 4 different variations of Android crap but he’s happy because he just keeps getting new ones. In his mind it’s “free” (that’s OK with him because he is a freetard and doesn’t pay for anything anyway).

    This is exactly why this “market share” bull$hit is just that. They have had to “ship” 4 different phones to one customer over 18 months. Where as I have had the same phone for 18 months.

    Yeah, they can take the whole market share “shipped” bull$hit and pitch it whoever they want but it still reeks. Until these iPhone rip-offs start releasing actual “sold” numbers, then they should just automatically be given that title and people should stop saying so.

  5. Steve Jobs was not alone in being able to alter perception. Idiots are misled, markets manipulated, the media and word of mouth also alter perception. Apple needs continuous positive feedback and its ability to generate excitement. The more people see, touch, and use its products, the greater the demand. Most of the stuff at Best Buy (or Microsoft Stores) compares terribly unfavorably.

  6. This is almost the exact model Microsoft used to beat apple the first time. Give it away and then charge for it. Apple has an up hill battle ahead. They must innovate to win, the copy cats win when they have it all copied…

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