“Apple is trying to boost its lagging share of the world’s biggest market by selling handsets through China Mobile Ltd. (941)’s 763 million users starting Friday,” Bloomberg News claims.
MacDailyNews Take: Are they? Is that really what Apple’s is trying to do, increase share? That runs contrary to everything Tim Cook says, so, somehow, we doubt it. From – oh, look, Bloomberg itself! – here’s Apple CEO Tim Cook in September:
There’s always a large junk part of the market,. We’re not in the junk business. There’s a segment of the market that really wants a product that does a lot for them, and I want to compete like crazy for those customers. I’m not going to lose sleep over that other market, because it’s just not who we are. Fortunately, both of these markets are so big, and there’s so many people that care and want a great experience from their phone or their tablet, that Apple can have a really good business. – Apple CEO Tim Cook
So, yeah, we’re going to go with Apple’s CEO on this one, over yet another facile “news” report.
Newsflash for Bloomberg: Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers.
Learn it. Know it. Live it.
Bloomberg News continues, “The iPhone maker faces challenges because many Chinese customers prefer to have one large-screen device for checking e-mail, browsing the Web and watching videos. Every other fourth-generation smartphone offered by China Mobile is at least a half-inch (1.27 centimeters) larger than Apple’s models… Samsung captured 21 percent of smartphone shipments in China in the third quarter, compared with Apple’s 6 percent, according to Canalys. Samsung ranked first and Apple fifth, with three domestic vendors in-between.”
MacDailyNews Take: What share of the mid- to high-end smartphone market did Apple capture? That’s really all that maters to Apple. They don’t compete in the bottom of the barrel like Samsung with 155 feature phones that magically get counted as “smartphones.” Comparing the entire market to the subset in which Apple actually competes is meaningless and disingenuous. If the high-end wants larger phones (and if our polling is any indication, the high-end most certainly does), then Apple should already have larger screen iPhones available. This is Tim Cook’s mistake. He’s left money on the table. Fortunately, contracts run out every day. There’s still time to for Apple to offer proper choice to the mid- to high-end customers that Apple actually wants. One size does not fit all.
And, many Chinese customers do not “prefer” to have one device, one device is generally all they can afford. This is the case in many markets around the world. Apple needs to provide choices to quality customers everywhere. The 4-inch iPhone simply isn’t cutting it for far too many people.
Bloomberg News continues, “Pre-orders for the iPhone have reached about 1 million units…”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, have they really? That also runs contrary to news reports:
“China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua said that millions of Apple’s iPhones already have been ordered by its customers.” – The Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2014
That’s “millions,” Bloomberg. Plural. With an “s.” As in, not “about 1 million.” Nice work.
Bloomberg News continues, “Screen size also matters in China because mobile phones often take the place of tablets, personal computers and televisions. Apple’s potential customer pool is limited by the cost of the iPhone, which is more than the equivalent of $700.”
MacDailyNews Take: Actually, in reality, Apple’s potential customer pool is targeted by the cost of the iPhone.
Full article, for what it’s worth (not much), here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, Apple isn’t targeting the entire smartphone market, just the worthwhile part of the smartphone market. The wheat, not the chaff, if you will. Samsung et al. can have the bottom of the barrel.
If Apple needs iPhones with larger screens – and they do, because in some places, quality customers are still somewhat economically challenged and therefore try to do it all with a phone versus owning an iPhone and an iPad and in every market healthy percentages of quality customers simply prefer more screen real estate – then Apple should release iPhones with larger screens ASAP.
Apple is late on this, but there is still time to recover. Release the Kraken, Apple!