“In a sense, there are two rational Apple bear arguments. The first is that it doesn’t matter whether Apple can create superior products and experiences — the low-end competitors will eventually reach a ‘good enough’ point that will disrupt Apple’s business,” John Gruber writes for Daring Fireball. “The automobile industry analogy has forever been used in arguments about Apple, but I think that’s because in a broad sense it’s quite apt… Apple is sort of like BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, and Lexus all rolled into one. There just aren’t that many competitors for this segment of the market in phones and tablets, and most of them aren’t very good.”
“The second Apple bear argument comes from those who think Apple has already lost its design and experience advantage — that devices from Samsung, Amazon, Google and whoever else have already equalled or surpassed Apple’s, and at lower prices to boot,” Gruber writes. “To these critics, the nine million people who bought new iPhones in its first weekend simply haven’t woken up yet. Me? I think this second group is wrong about the state of Apple’s design advantages.”
“There is a third school of Apple bears… [subscribe] to the theory that iOS is the new Mac, Android is the new Windows, and Apple is about to see the 1990s all over again.,” Gruber writes. “The Mac today has roughly 10 percent of the PC market, but it’s not just any randomly distributed 10 percent of the market. Quite the opposite — Apple’s 10 percent of the market is entirely comprised of the high end of the market. Mac users are discriminating, willing to pay more for a product they deem superior… So the irony here is that iOS vs. Android (or, if you prefer, iPhone and iPad vs. commodity smartphones and tablets) is in fact a replay Mac vs. Windows — but not in the way that most who make the comparison would have you believe.”
Much more – recommended – in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Quality products attract quality customers.
In other words, as our own SteveJack explained a year ago:
Newsflash: Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers.