“The latest rumor going around is that Apple plans to bring its signature iTunes software and store to Android,” Ashraf Eassa writes for The Motley Fool. “The credibility of this rumor is shoddy at best, but every so often something like this makes the rounds. True or not, this seems like a poor business decision and one that Apple shouldn’t adopt.”
“The real “secret sauce” to Apple’s wild iPhone profitability lies in both the brand loyalty it has garnered over the years and in the differentiated software ecosystem that the company includes with its phones,” Eassa writes. “A big part of the iPhone’s “stickiness” is that plenty of folks own a fairly sizable collection of paid apps, making a move away from the iOS ecosystem a bit difficult. Apple’s iTunes is very similar; just replace ‘apps’ with ‘media.'”
“By bringing iTunes to Android, consumers have one less reason to ‘need’ to buy an iOS device,” Eassa writes. “Indeed, if Apple brings the core of its software/service ecosystem to competing platforms, then how is it going to maintain such high profitability on its devices? Differentiating on hardware is nearly impossible, especially when iPhones typically don’t pack the latest-and-greatest, buzzword-compliant specifications. In fact, Apple intentionally goes with the cheapest it can get away with on the hardware side and then more than makes up for it on the software side.”
MacDailyNews Take: Total B.S. Apple offers the world’s only 64-bit smartphone, powered by Apple’s A7. Huge investments in time, talent, and money have been and continue to be made by Apple. That is certainly not going with “the cheapest it can get.” If you’re going to write something, Ashraf, try the truth next time.
Eassa continues, “iTunes, as well as the rest of Apple’s first-party software, is key to keeping its platform as ‘sticky’ as possible. In a world where anybody can put together a fast, slick smartphone with a gorgeous screen and great battery life, it really does come down to the usability and usefulness of the device.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As Day One owners of every iPhone ever made and witnesses to Android settlers shutting off their phones at 11am in the vain hope that they’ll be able to make it through the evening, we’ve yet to see a smartphone with “great battery life.” Get real, Ashraf.
If Apple truly believes in iPhone, then they do not need artificial constraints (keeping iTunes to themselves) to keep/lure customers in some desperate Microsoftian Office-for-Surface-only fashion.
Again, if Apple truly believes in iPhone, Apple’s iTunes and iTunes Store should be available for every widely-selling platform.