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Of myths and market share

Friday, January 18, 2013 · 4:31 pm · 26 Comments

“When comparing the market share numbers of smart phone operating systems with desktop operating systems you quickly notice a similarity; there is one clear ‘winner’ who has taken the lion’s share of each particular market,” Michael J. Tomlin writes for obviouslogic. “Android currently has about a 75% share of the smart phone market and Windows still has 90% in the desktop space.”

“Because Apple was involved in that original race to grab desktop share, people like to compare that situation with what’s going on today in the mobile market,” Tomlin writes . “Analysts and Android fans have since then concluded that Android is winning and Apple lost again. Based on market share numbers alone one would be inclined to think so, but if you look a little closer, you can see that is not the case at all.”

Tomlin writes, “Comparing Android’s market share numbers with those of Window’s and declaring that they are similar shows absolute ignorance and little understanding of the differences in their respective markets.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

Categories: News

Tags: android, ios, iPad, iPad knockoffs, iPad roadkill, iPad wannabes, iphone, iPhone knockoffs, iPhone roadkill, iPhone wannabes, market share, Michael J. Tomlin, profit share, unit share

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Comment Feed

26 Comments

troy

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 4:40 pm · Reply

Please, let the ignorant crowd still believe in market share, that’s the only meaningful thing in they lives.
People who defends market share concept is people that can afford REAL WORKING AN INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS so they only hope is to say the crap they but is the best selling crap.
MArket share is good, please poor ignorant core, keep buying all the crap we want out our house.
- mantion
  
  Saturday, January 26, 2013 - 1:06 am · Reply
  
  Were you drunk when you typed this? I know its Friday but most people don’t’ drunk post until 4am not 4pm. If you weren’t drunk then I will only assume English was not your first language and forgive me for picking on you. I don’t have perfect grammar and make typos but when I read your comment I just kept thinking “is this guy drunk”.
Crabapple

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 4:55 pm · Reply

But it does show the true workings of the pay masters. On one level, both Microsoft & Google don’t mind their products being lumped together to present a winning formula, on the other, the same two companies are prepared to fight tooth & nail through the courts and through the purchase of IP from struggling competitors that they have both knifed in the back. Google endeared themselves to Apple as “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” whilst Microsoft is now doing the same somewhat differently having learnt their lesson by practicing ” I will work with my enemy against my enemy but keep in mind that my enemy is still my enemy”. Meanwhile, those analysts not receiving payment directly through M$ or Googleshaft are busy scurrying like crabs gobbling up the shit from those two entities whilst bad moutthing Apple inc. One cannot help but bad mouth when ones mouth is full of shit!
b pondo

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 5:20 pm · Reply

Where is this 75% market share coming from?
- peterblood71
  
  Saturday, January 19, 2013 - 2:09 am · Reply
  
  I would love to see a percentage breakdown of the top of the line Android models on down to the feature phone cheap crap which I’ll bet is easily half that 75% figure.
  - mantion
    
    Saturday, January 26, 2013 - 1:15 am · Reply
    
    My cheap $150 no content 3d capable phone has more features then the best iPhone. That said… I can’t seem to find iTunes on my Android? where is it? There is so much great content to buy and ad support fee apps to download on Google play. I hear iTunes has the same thing… HuH.. If apple had vision they would offer cheaper phones, try to keep its market share so they can make money from iTunes. A $50 phone can buy all the content that a $500 phone can buy. Content will become more and more important for profits, eventually phones will not change that much to warrent buying a new one each year. I still have a 7 year old laptop and love it. I plan to keep this cheap phone for some time because there isn’t a feature out there that i am craving for. I am confident that when I replace this phone I will have spent more money on content then i did on the phone.
    
    Market share is all that matters and apple ignores this at their peril.
Thelonious Mac

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 5:36 pm · Reply

so… many… arguments… macs vs. pc, iOS vs android, Glock vs Kimber, conservative vs. liberal, Kardassian booty vs. Beyonce booty, can’t think… too much noise… too many opinions based on noise… cannot extrapolate truth… losing my mind… wait… what’s this… a new episode of ARCHER!

i’m saved.
- skylark
  
  Friday, January 18, 2013 - 7:29 pm · Reply
  
  Best of Archer.
  
  Sterling: “…I’m not saying I invented the turtleneck. But I was the first person to realize its potential as a tactical garment. The tactical turtleneck! The… tactleneck!”
  
  best of Archer 2.
- mantion
  
  Saturday, January 26, 2013 - 1:17 am · Reply
  
  you forgot Cat vs Dog..
  
  BTW Dog won.
Really

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 5:46 pm · Reply

I could care less who has the most market share or the most profits so long as there is enough business for all of them to keep releasing awesome devices and so far that has worked out well.

Think back to 2006 for a moment… cell phones sucked… fast forward to 2013 and we have a whole line of downright wicked ‘computers for our pockets” that are affordable and powerful.

Consumers are winning if you ask me.
Derek Currie

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 5:50 pm · Reply

All of us who use Macs and love it know full well the value of market share: Nothing.

Superior technology wins. Boohoo to everyone else who settles for the crap technology. You bought what you deserve.
GM

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 6:24 pm · Reply

Actually market share does matter. Otherwise you have great margins on virtually no sales. So those who talk about market share not being important do not know what they are talking about. You need a combination of margins and marketshare to be successful. That’s pretty obvious to anyone familiar with how a business works.
- davylow
  
  Saturday, January 19, 2013 - 7:40 am · Reply
  
  Any business at any time can choose to ‘buy marketshare’. That is, they can lower their price to gain customers. However, the new revenue (volume x price) that results from this tactic might actually be lower than it was before. And not only that, but even if the revenue is higher the profitability might be lower as the profit per unit approaches zero. And not only that, but the higher level of volume itself could be temporary for several reasons, like the loss of an exclusive brand image or competition matching the new price, or simply market saturation.
  
  Some of these things come into play with Apple and some don’t, but the point is that, even though market share matters, there are a lot of ways to obtain market share that are self defeating. Market share is a means to increase profit (usually) so if you gain it at the expense of profit you could be shooting yourself in the foot.
  - GM
    
    Saturday, January 19, 2013 - 7:42 am · Reply
    
    As I said, anyone who knows anything about business knows that you need the right combination of both. Nuff said.
Mac Plus

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 6:24 pm · Reply

“Superior technology wins.”

Sadly, not always. I give you… Betamax.
- Mac Plus
  
  Friday, January 18, 2013 - 6:25 pm · Reply
  
  Betamax. God, I’m old.
  - mechanic50
    
    Friday, January 18, 2013 - 7:50 pm · Reply
    
    actually betamax went to the industrial side after its loss to the inferior vhs my brother used betamax for years at the local tv station after its public consumer demise. Your right it is a much better standard.
    - alanaudio
      
      Saturday, January 19, 2013 - 3:14 am · Reply
      
      I would assume that he was actually using Betacam tapes at the TV station. Betacam uses a similar cassette housing to Betamax, but is a quite different format.
      
      Betamcam was one of the most universally used broadcast formats for many years.
- eldernorm
  
  Friday, January 18, 2013 - 8:40 pm · Reply
  
  Actually Steve Jobs decided after many issues that great technology was not enough. You need to have good sales to make the whole thing work.
  
  Even in PCs, Apple laptops sold 90% of the laptops over 1000$. You know, where the profits are. But there are sweet spots in the pricing. Not cheap, and not expensive. Sweet prices.
  
  Apple, insanely great hardware, super software, and while not cheap, worth every penny.
  
  Just a thought. en
  PS, I have an eMac, IMac G5, iBook, MacBook(2007), and MacBookPro (2011) all still running just great.
- Fran Toosie
  
  Sunday, January 20, 2013 - 1:18 am · Reply
  
  But what, 80% of iPhone parts are Samsung…
skylark

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 7:17 pm · Reply

Some content was stripped by our security filters, but is should be possible for one of your Editors to embed the content for you.

Sterling: “…I’m not saying I invented the turtleneck. But I was the first person to realize its potential as a tactical garment. The tactical turtleneck! The… tactleneck!”
auren

Friday, January 18, 2013 - 10:23 pm · Reply

Say what you want about market share… the truth is, if Apple was leading in that as well as all the other benchmarks, we’d all be happily cheering about it.
3l3c7ro

Saturday, January 19, 2013 - 1:24 am · Reply

I guess that we should all drive Toyota Corollas and not aspire to drive a BMW or Audi. They don’t own the mass market.
correctu

Saturday, January 19, 2013 - 2:49 am · Reply

Why don’t they include iPads into the equation here? WTF.

Screw that 75% figure. Add iOS and OS X figures together and lets see that percent. Where is Microsoft with their crazy color blocks of info aka Windows 8? How’s Google doing in tablets with Android and desktops with their internet based Chrome OS?

The whole picture is the perspective that counts.
- alanaudio
  
  Saturday, January 19, 2013 - 3:34 am · Reply
  
  “Why don’t they include iPads into the equation here?”
  
  Because those that make the comparisons appear to have a vested interest in minimising Apple’s apparent market share when it comes to headline figures.
  
  That’s why they dreamed up the concept of ‘Media Consumption Tablets’, because they wanted to pretend that iPads couldn’t be used for content creation, although they were quite happy to conveniently overlook the fact that all those PCs driving ATMs and POS terminals don’t create content but are still counted at PCs.
  
  Market share alone doesn’t make a viable business. I’m based in the UK, so my apologies for using local examples, but HMV record stores sold more CDs and DVDs on the High Streets than anybody else. Blockbuster rented out more DVDs and games than anybody else on the HIgh Street ( by a huge margin ), but both companies went bust this week.
  
  More internationally, Dell enjoys a great market share, but is struggling to keep going. When it comes to phones, only Samsung makes money from selling Android phones. All the others account for a significant market share between them, but are losing money on every phone they sell.
  
  Market share means nothing if you’re not making a profit. You’ll only have a viable long term business if you make a sustainable profit. The important word being ‘sustainable’. Even Samsung may fall foul of that because they are spending an astronomical amount advertising and promoting their phones and tablets. My feeling is that it’s unsustainable to continue spending at that level, so the important issue is whether having established the brand, will it continue without such expensive promotion, or will it drop back ?
  - Fran Toosie
    
    Sunday, January 20, 2013 - 1:20 am · Reply
    
    well said