“It’s not a secret that Android has surpassed iOS in terms of mobile market share,” Tony Bradley reports for Forbes. “While Android loyalists take great pride in this fact, though, Apple could seemingly not care less — and for good reason.”
“The reality is that Apple doesn’t really compete with Android. Apple and Android cater to different markets with different needs,” Bradley reports. “There are Android vendors who aspire to compete with Apple—like Samsung—but Apple isn’t actively striving to win over Android users.”
“It comes down to this simple fact: The people who buy cheap Android smartphones and cheap Android tablets were never in Apple’s market to begin with. It wouldn’t matter if Android didn’t exist at all—those customers are simply not part of Apple’s target audience,” Bradley reports. “Android expanded the size of the mobile market share pie, but really had virtually zero impact on Apple itself.”
Bradley reports, “In the end, what is the value of market share if it doesn’t result in revenue and, more importantly, profit? Apple doesn’t need to be concerned with the market share battle, because most of the customers who are driving the skyrocketing market share of Android are not Apple’s target market, and don’t provide any underlying value aside from headline fodder for tech news sites.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve been explaining for many years now:
The price tags on and features of Apple’s products are an IQ test. They are a filter that Apple uses to skim off the desirable customers and leave the leftovers to the knockoff peddlers. Tablet buyers, just like personal computer and smartphone buyers, either pass or they fail – daily, repeatedly, forever, until or unless they finally figure it out. Newsflash: Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers.
Android can have the Hee Haw demographic. Apple doesn’t want it or need it; it’s far more trouble than it’s worth.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David E.” for the heads up.]
“Android can have the Hee Haw Demographic”. Sadly, I live in Hee Haw territory. Michigan (and the entire Midwest for that matter) is a complete mess at the moment. Thankfully, Chicago is fine. The “500 murders a year” FUD is spread by hicks from Smelly Balls, Indiana who have no idea how great cities like Chicago and Detroit are. Those cities deserve to be asscociated with the Eastern Seaboard. The hicks in the Midwest don’t deserve cities like these.
I would imagine if you asked the Eastern Seaboard their opinion they would say to shove those two corrupt and vile ratholes where the sun don’t shine.
Dang.
Are you in any way related to Jimmy Chou. Separated at birth perhaps.
Living in Hee Haw country doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the Hee Haw demographic. And living in the suburbs or big cities doesn’t mean you’re not. I see more android phones when I visit the northeast or when I visit the city, than I do in my iPhone-dominated, rural town of 450. These people are not ignorant or poor. They may have cows at home, but they also have a certain tech savvy that is not universal in “civilization”.
Yes, Jack up Chicago and move it out of the midwest and into the northeast and increase the average IQ of both areas.
500 murder a year is just FUD? Really? Probably doesn’t feel that way to the survivors. Actually the rate has come down a bit over the last 15 years or so, but it’s still super bad. Note the 15.9 per 100,000 citizens rate.
http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Chicago-Illinois.html
The entire country of the Netherlands had 179 murders in (I think) 2011, and that’s considered among the most dangerous regions.
http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/2280-amsterdam-is-one-of-europes-top-murder-capitals-eurostat
Amsterdam is in 4th place (as of this report) with a rate of 3.65 murders per 100,000. That means that Chicago murder rate is more than 4.3 times higher than the 4th most dangerous city in Europe!
I think FUD is misdirection, and a super high murder rate is a matter of fact.
Wow. A journalist who gets it.
Cook is so scared of Android eating away iOS market share that he has a big brown stain on his underwear. He’s so scared that iOS 6 is so radically different from, and superior to, Android that he directed his co-idiot Ive to make iOS 7 look as boring and featureless as Android.
Cook may say he’s not afraid of Android but deep down he’s being psychologically affected by Android’s inexorable march towards dominance in the mobile sphere. His reaction is to make iOS 7 look as much as Android as possible to confuse consumers that iOS is as good as Android. He’s employing classic Samsung tactics used in 2007-2011 to gain a march on iOS before Steve’s untimely death left the unimaginative Cook with a problem to solve.
This guy has some serious insight!!
He must know exactly what’s going on at Apple based upon years of steady following.
Thank you alien. Welcome to earth!
I would bet that the shit stain in his skivvies has an amazing resemblance to you.
What an ass hat.
I guess the words in the article were too big for you to understand.
Dude … I left my shity Galaxy Smart watch on your mums dresser. She can keep it. It’s not worth going back to get it should I see her face again. An apple product is worth going back. That’s why your dad never returned home.
Along with 50 cents.
Wow.. Thanks for the humor break!
You don’t dominate by being a wannabe derivative IP thief playing perpetual catchup.
“Android expanded the size of the mobile market share pie, but really had virtually zero impact on Apple itself.”
Just a guess here: Lots of Linux types may have looked at Android tablets first and maybe even bought one because ‘I don’t like Apple.’ That experience probably taught those types of users right back to iPads, sooner rather than later.
So maybe Android is actually helping Apple when tech types try Android.
In my experience, most of the people I know bought Android because they don’t like Microsoft. They remembered using Windows Mobile back in the mid 2000s, and they now have an Android device. Some of them even revel in Windows Phone/8’s problems. They may be on the same “anti-Microsoft” team, but they are also against Apple. A “3-way” was what the PC wars of the late 90s/early 00s should have been.
All of the Android owners that I know bought it for one of 3 reasons:
They “couldn’t afford an iPhone” and didn’t realize that there is a free iPhone option available.
They hate Apple and masochistically inflict Android upon themselves.
The want a phone with a screen the size of an iPad mini (for who knows what reason).
Reason 4 – The sales guy told them to buy one.
Pssssst, have I got a deal for you!
The success of the 5S seems to have lit the wick of the apple haters – unless samsung is paying posters again… I suspect that a big part of the problem is that many people, young males in particular, see their phone as a status symbol and which supports their “individuality”. Their problem is that the fashionable product is also the best product, so to be “individual” they need to buy something else. I knew a guy like this – he was adamant he would never buy an iPhone because (and he was open about it) he didn’t want to be seen as someone who followed the crowd. So he had one windows phone disaster after another. And he probably has an HTC or other unpopular brand now. If you buy for the wrong reason you get the wrong solution. But you can’t possibly admit it. Emotionally-charged attacks on the iPhone is the inevitable response. Most of these comments are exceedingly silly, and nearly all are angry.
I think that’s a lot of it, people think they’re following the crowd by buying a good product. Isn’t the fact that they’re wearing clothes an indicator that they do follow the crowd anyway? Someone self confident who doesn’t want to follow the crowd doesn’t have to worry that others are using the same phone, they choose based on what’s actually best.
This is one of the more truthful and accurate posts I’ve seen on the phomenon. Nice work.
The author makes little sense. To say none of the android share would buy iPhones if android wasn’t around is absurd.
Don’t cha there is a reason apple is spending tens of millions of dollars suing samsung around the globe????? Just think before you write!
I dont think it is quite that black and white, Apple sues Samsung so that it can’t make its phones ‘iPhones’ on the cheap which it was trying to do and certainly would take away some Apple buyers or /and keep Android users moving to an iPhone. There is clearly some overlap which needs to be kept in check. I think the author presumes that we understand that rather than treat us like idiots.
Well, the lawsuits haven’t in any way constrained Samsung yet, and thus there are likely millions of Android users who would be iOS users. I think Apple would be very happy with a world share of 30-40% of the market that represents 70-80% of the very best customers to have. This point has been made thousands of times.
The crap this author is espousing is exactly the same logic the UK court took, where they required Apple to write a public apology to Samsung for accusing them of copying. It didn’t make sense in the UK and doesn’t make sense now.
“Corrupt and vile ratholes”. Your ignorance is so hilarious I almost pity you. If you actually visited Chicago for at least a few hours, you would realize that it has more class and sophistication than whatever redneck, Hee Haw town you (yes YOU) are from. I would not be surprised if that post was sent from an Android phone or a Windows computer. If you hate these cities, then please stay in Hee Hawville, Oklabraska. We don’t need, or want your kind around here.
Sounds strangely familiar.
You’re quite the jerk, Wayne. Insulting millions of people is classy???
I often wonder about America.
If Chicago is such a great place, can I wander anywhere as I please, any time I would like? Two in the morning, for example? Do I have to worry about “what part” of town I have to avoid?
Go to Los Angeles. Enter the Jungle, then you will know…real life.
I am from LA and “the man holding the gun” is THE LAW.
Just asking.
I know of no one personally that has traded in their iPhone for an Android phone. I know of at least 10 people who jettisoned their Android phone for an iPhone 5.
Android market share is being taken from dumb phones. In two years those who recently got Android phones will be trading up to an iPhone 7.
I know quite a few people who traded in their iPhone for an Android including my own daughter who just got a pink 5C and adores it. Many who flipped from iPhone to Android will soon come screaming back. One (of many) thing(s) Android is weaker on is brand loyalty.
Apple has had this same attitude since the early 80’s. “We don’t compete agains IBM”.. or “we build insanely great products that people want”.
The iPhone is already at max for comfortable one hand use. Any bigger and you will be another Samsung goofball fumbling to use it with one hand and use a stylus as if your rocking the 80’s retro hell. I like one hand use and so does my wife. If you can’t handle it with one hand then you deserve that goofy oversize obese Samsung POS.
What is wrong with retro 80s style? What is wrong with retro for that matter? The 80s had the best music, movies, and entertainment in general. Even the video games were more entertaining that the drivel that passes off as gaming nowadays. Sure, PDAs with stylus did sucked, but that is an unfair way to knock on the 80s and 90s. With that logic, the 21st century is great because of very overrated high tech. While YOU are playing Angry Birds, the country is self-destructing after all of the decisions our government made post-9/11. Don’t even get me started with the music. I hate that you teeny boppers think the only good entertainment are the things you watched or listened to when you turned 13. Yeah, right.
“…the things you watched or listened to when you turned 13…”
that’d be last month for you, Wayne.
You are sprouting the same bullshit that someone using “80s90sFan or something or another.
Bet you’re the same dickhead
A Google search for “Hee Haw” on itunes.apple.com produces 6,530 results –
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22hee+haw%22+site:itunes.apple.com&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Occasionally, life hands us litmus tests for stupid.
Android…
It is really quite simple as I see it, there is Apple and iPhone, and there is everybody else. Everybody else just aspires to be like Apple. If you can’t see that you are blind, ignorant and/or really stupid.
“Bradley reports, “In the end, what is the value of market share if it doesn’t result in revenue and, more importantly, profit?”
Sorry if I sound like I’m talking to a 4 year old: you do know there is such a thing as Profit Share, correct? It’s been highly touted for years now. It’s not that hard to calculate either.
Are you speaking for or against Apple’s business model? Your comment is unclear. MNXT41 below explains what I think you’re trying to say very clearly. 85% of the profits of the ‘smartphone’ market is captured by Apple. iPhones are responsible for 80-90% of revenue generating internet traffic (real $ not just click-through activity). Apple has control over economies of scale and component costs (in their favour) which are two threats when your product is a commodity (which in the case of iPhone, Apple has ensured through design it is not).
Apple shouldn’t and doesn’t ignore developments in the Android, and they are right to pursue patent infringement against unethical companies.
Finally, Apple’s rise to dominance is compelling evidence of a successful business model and product offering which, if Apple is successful in its litigation against patent infringers, will force competitors to develop better products through original (I.e. their own) R&D to the benefit of the market at all price points.
Hrmmm… for it. I’m speaking against the braindead writer Tony Bradley, who’s out there hacking away at strawman arguments. The term ‘profit share’ has been around for quite some time and is used in connection with Apple all the time. This ‘piece’ is based on the assumption (?) that profit share doesn’t exist or no one has heard of it.
TLDR: This is old news.
I am glad android and Microsoft exists, bottom feeders of the society can have that, separates the chaff from the wheat.
It separates the wheat from the chaff. The chaff is the undesirable stuff. The wheat is what you keep.
I would much rather have a smaller market share and higher margins, than the other way around. Market share is nothing more than bragging rights, and in this case here’s how that goes – “We can give away more Android phones, than you can sell iPhones!” Anyone can give something away …
Based on current profit margins, as a very rough (and even numbered to make a broad point figure Apple could be making approx $200-$300 per iPhone.
Loads of people complain that iPhones are too expensive and that they should cut the cost so they will sell more and make more money. On a $600+ device, how much of a price cut would make a substantial difference to the number sold? $100, $150, more?
Even if generous and you say Apple are making $300 a phone, cutting by $100 dollars means they have to sell 50% more just to break even to where they were before. Economies of scale may come in to play a bit more, but they would be negligible considering the volumes they’re already doing. Cutting the price more would just increase further the amount they need to sell to be at the same point, and cutting it less wouldn’t likely increase sales much. Considering they can’t make them fast enough they would basically just be throwing money away for no tangible benefit. I don’t think a $100 price cut would increase sales anywhere near enough to warrant it.
The only way for Apple to make a substantially increased amount of money on increased sales would be to cut costs and sell a lower quality device. That is something that they just don’t want to do, but would also be cutting out one of their primary selling points.
Apple price their products very deliberately, you can argue that a few tens of dollars either way on things might balance price points more, but they analyse the hell out of these things and come up with prices for a reason. The fact they are as profitable as they are and that the rest of the market isn’t pretty much proves that.
People calling for Apple to sell things at lower cost are not saying it because they think it will make Apple more successful, they’re doing it because they’re cheap and want to pay less themselves.
Windows had huge market share and made a lot of money, but when Apple really got it together with the launch of OS X and all the machines that have run on it, they leveraged their small market share into the biggest profits in the industry. The difference this time is that Android isn’t making the same big money that Windows did originally, Android doesn’t have the larger volume of software that Windows did (quality aside). Windows had advantages because it built up a lead which Microsoft then blew. Android doesn’t have those and is largely just occupying the low profit end which they are welcome to. If anything, low end users getting Android “smartphones” is an opportunity for Apple because a number of them will upgrade to iOS subsequently.
What in the name of all thing holy are you doing? Mature, educated thought that holds water? Get the hell out of here. You’ll scare the kids! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Spot on – kudos
…. like Apple ignored Windows market share all the way to the bank?
Having the best product means little if you can’t maintain a vibrant 3rd party developer base. While iTunes indeed offers that today, other platforms are rapidly eliminating Apple’s lead. To propose that Apple should ignore the health of the competition is absolutely ridiculous.
Yes, Apple was in a good position. But then it released the iPhone5c and iPad mini, meaning it is trying to make a go for a wider market, because keeping its existing market would eventually run it at a loss. This and the fact that Android starting to eat away at Apple’s once-exclusive niche, means Apple is in a very tenuous position right now. Market share matters, and Apple knows it.