If they wanted, Apple could become the market share leader in everything tomorrow

13 years ago

“How many times do you hear people reference ‘market share’ and the growth of Google’s Android platform as evidence of Apple’s demise?” Rocco Pendola asks for TheStreet. “Too often. It should never happen. When it does, make no mistake, you’re witnessing a wholesale misunderstanding of Apple… it serves to further pollute the waters vis-a-vis what Apple is about.”

“We’ll see how he decides to proceed, but, for the time being, it appears Tim Cook is more like Steve Jobs than many of us gave him credit for at the outset. At Apple’s core, Cook looks as focused, committed and even stubborn as Jobs. For whatever reason, the media glosses over so much of what Cook had to say on Apple’s most recent earnings call and at this week’s Goldman Sachs’ powwow,” Pendola writes. “Things like … paraphrasing here … We could do lots of things to generate revenue, but we’re not going to just produce random products because we can. That’s not a talking point. And, if it is, it’s wholly genuine. Apple could — tomorrow — do several things to become the market share leader in everything. Not just tablets.”

“If Apple decided to license its operating systems (iOS and OS X), with very few rules, to all those willing to run them, it would likely crush Android within a few minutes… It might even save companies such as Dell and Hewlett Packard from their pending deaths. It would be earth shattering,” Pendola writes. “Of course, it will never happen. Shouldn’t. Probably can’t. But, the point here is that Apple is not a market share company. It’s an aspirational brand with considerable social status.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Yes. Licensing iOS and/or OS X would only degrade the experience and the Apple brand as tasteless, greedy companies shove Apple’s crown jewels into their cut-rate, consumer-grade lumps like diamonds in turds.

Android devices and Windows PCs exist as the low/no profit commodities they are only because Apple isn’t interested in flooding the world with more crap, just so they can claim to have flooded the world with the most crap. Apple exists to delight customers with transformational products that improve their lives. May they never deviate from the goal. The profits that come along with that are just gravy. And, oh, by the way:

Profit share trumps market share every damn time. – MacDailyNews Take, October 5, 2011