“The year 2014 has been a very good year for Apple,” Fred Imbert reports for CNBC. “The Cupertino, California-based company increased its market cap to $700 billion last month and released two new cell phone units: The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. Apple also released Apple Pay, its mobile-payment service, and will release it in the United Kingdom next year.”
“Tavis McCourt, managing director of Raymond James Financial, said in an interview with CNBC’s ‘Squawk on the Street’ that Apple Pay alone would not drive up Apple’s stock, but it would increase the iPhone’s market share,” Imbert reports. “McCourt added that, while there is a natural ceiling for the iPhone’s market share, the company isn’t close to reaching it. ‘They’re taking a rather high-price strategy, so there is a limit,’ he said. ‘But I don’t think that we’re anywhere near that limit.'”
Imbert reports, “McCourt added that, while Android is a ‘very fragmented ecosystem,’ it is still doing very well in some regions of the world. Competition for mobile market share within the U.S., however, is almost nonexistent for the tech giant, he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last February:
The people who buy content, apps, accessories, and use data participate in Apple’s unparalleled ecosystems. All others can go pound sand; they’re more trouble than they’re worth (which, after the sale, is very little, if anything). Samsung et al. can have them.
Crabapple: Crabapple to drive New Year Greetings to higher level by achieving a greater reach 🙂
Happy New Year to all Applelites! May you all be titillated by even more sexier Apple News in the coming year.
Lots of Vinegary or Cidery or juicy Love from me,
Crabapple.
Thanks, Crabby! That is undoubtedly the strangest New Year’s message that I have ever received. The high hopes for Apple’s future are fully reciprocated.
Hmmm, sounds like that’s HARD cider you’ve been hittin’ there Crabby.
My philosophy is like Apple’s. I believe in the tight integration of hard cider and soft cider.
I find it quite surprising to hear Apple has some chance to take back smartphone market share. The only thing I thought would happen would only be to slow down Android’s growth a bit. I had been hoping Android’s growth would top out in 2015 if Windows Phone gained any traction and that doesn’t seem to be happening. It’s a total no-go with Samsung’s Tizen OS, too. With Google’s Android One initiative, I can’t see Apple gaining market share against $75 Android smartphones. How can Apple gain against something so cheap? The Android manufacturers are practically giving away their smartphones.
I don’t think it’s really important Apple gain market share but in order for Apple Pay maintain growth a lot more new iPhones need to be sold unless AppleWatch can do Apple Pay transactions on its own. I personally think Apple is moving at a good pace and consumers and retailers simply need to be more aware of its potential value. Nothing that involves so many humans is going to change overnight. What’s good is Apple’s retail stores coaxing customers to use Apple Pay with incentives which is a huge advantage Apple has over current rivals.
Apple doesn’t even WANT that kind of market share.
Here’s an analogy. Let’s say that Apple was a furniture maker, making high-end furniture. Do you really think that Apple would care about its overall “chair” market share if that “market” included lawn chairs and cheap folding chairs? Obviously not; despite how someone else defines the market, they are not in the cheap lawn chair market.
And Apple is not in the cheap phone market, despite what some define as the “smartphone” market.
That was true before Apple pay but from now on the more people who can use Apple pay the more money Apple can rake in.
So Apple should come out with ApplePay for Android app.