“There has been an awful lot of negative talk concerning Apple this past month,” John Kirk writes for Tech.pinions. “Apple is always subject to criticism, but this time the criticism feels a little out of place. After all, Apple’s quarterly numbers are good, their revenue per employee is outstanding and Apple has so much cash in hand that Horace Dediu humorously titled his graph on same ‘The Trauma Of Too Much Money.'”
“My personal “Claim Chowder” folder contains 12 examples of articles that contend the Android Operating system is better than Apple’s iOS and a whopping 67 examples of articles that claim one or another Android phone is, or was, supposed to be superior to the iPhone,” Kirk writes. “On the hardware side, there are some esoteric examples of smartphones that were supposed to be superior to the iPhone, such as the ‘Atria 2,’ ‘ePhone,’ ‘LePhone,’ and the ‘Thunderbolt,’ along with numerous examples from well known manufacturers such as Blackberry, Google Nexus, HTC, LG, Microsoft Windows Phone, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, and of course, Samsung.”
“Let’s do the math here. The Apple iPhone has about 15% of the smartphone market share; holds a mortal lock on the top 10% of the buyers that constitute the premium sector; and consistently takes in 90% — and even as high as 95% — of all smartphone profits,” Kirk writes. “Apple is not a big fish in a small pond. They’re the most bad ass fish in the biggest dang pond the world has ever seen. They absolutely dominate the premium sector of the premium tech product of our time… ‘But wait,’ you say, ‘Android owns most of that smartphone Pony.’ True enough. But Apple, all importantly, holds the reins while Android controls only the rearmost 85%. One might even be tempted to say that makes Android — metaphorically speaking — a horse’s ass.”
Tons more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote over three years ago:
Google made a crucial mistake: They gave away Android to “partners” who pushed and continue to push the product into the hands of the exact opposite type of user that Google needs for Android to truly thrive. Hence, Android is a backwater of second-rate, or worse, app versions that are only downloaded when free or ad-supported – but the Android user is notoriously cheap, so the ads don’t sell for much because they don’t work very well. You’d have guessed that Google would have understood this, but you’d have guessed wrong.
Google built a platform that depends heavily on advertising support, but sold it to the very type of customer who’s the least likely to patronize ads.
iOS users are the ones who buy apps, so developers focus on iOS users. iOS users buy products, so accessory makers focus on iOS users. iOS users have money and the proven will to spend it, so vehicle makers focus on iOS users. Etcetera. Android can have the “Hee Haw” demographic. Apple doesn’t want it or need it; it’s far more trouble than it’s worth. – MacDailyNews, November 26, 2012