“There is an awful lot to celebrate in Apple’s recent performance. What’s more, Apple continues to grow more than the competition in two key areas, phones and PCs,” Adam Lashinsky reports for Fortune. “Both are astounding accomplishments if you stop and think about it.”
“On phones, Apple was supposed to have been marginalized by now by phones running Google’s Android operating system. Android is mostly free, and any manufacturer can use it,” Lashinsky reports. “Instead, Apple’s share has continued to grow. Cook said iPhone sales grew at a 40% clip during the quarter compared with a 15% rate for the overall market, as calculated by IDC. “In almost every country we grew at a multiple to the market,” Cook said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Those who said that do not understand demographics. One Android settler simply does not equal one iPhone user. Apple long ago cornered the market in quality customers. The also-ran operating systems can have the rest; those customers are not worth the cost of acquiring and maintaining (margin erosion, damage to the brand, etcetera).
“Even more remarkable is the continued resurgence of the Mac,” Lashinsky reports. “For years Apple was a single-digit niche player in PCs, the choice of artists, educators, and other oddballs. Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, said the company sold 4.6 million Macs in the quarter, a 10% year-over-year increase, compared with a 7% global contraction for personal computers, per IDC.”
MacDailyNews Take: “Oddballs” with all the money. Apple owns over 90% of the premium personal computer market and have for many years. Again, those who said that the Mac was doomed do not understand demographics. One Windows sufferer or Chromebook cheapskate simply does not equal one Mac user. Apple long ago cornered the market in quality customers. The also-ran operating systems can have the rest; those customers are not worth the cost of acquiring and maintaining (margin erosion, damage to the brand, etcetera).
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we explained on October 18, 2013:
The price tags on and features of Apple’s products are an IQ test. They are a filter that Apple uses to skim off the desirable customers and leave the leftovers to the knockoff peddlers. Tablet buyers, just like personal computer and smartphone buyers, either pass or they fail – daily, repeatedly, forever, until or unless they finally figure it out.
Apple’s smartly focused on the right side of the bell curve.
Newsflash: Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers.
Related article:
Apple pounds Street with record second quarter iPhone and Mac sales – April 27, 2015