“While the iPhone was selling well, Apple didn’t need to worry about putting in the time and effort to poach Android users,” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes for ZDNet. “Sure, the Cupertino giant likes to throw some jabs at the Android camp, but up until recently Apple has been happy with grabbing about 20 percent of the smartphone market in exchange for some 90 percent of the profits… [but] the astonishing momentum that the iPhone has experienced over the past eight-and-a-half years is beginning to show some signs of slowing down, and that has Apple investors more than a little spooked.”
“If Apple can’t find enough people who want to buy iPhones willingly, then it has to start going after a wider market, and the most obvious demographic to target are those who have their eye on buying a premium Android handset,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “These are the ‘Android switchers’ that Apple CEO Tim Cook was talking about during the last earnings conference call.”
MacDailyNews Take: Misnomer of the year so far: “Premium Android handset.”
“Cook even went as far as making it clear that targeting ‘Android switchers’ was going to become a priority: ‘And it’s our jobs to come up with great products that people desire, and also to continue to attract over Android switchers.’ I think it’s particularly interesting that Cook sees coming up with ‘great products that people desire’ and tempting ‘Android switchers’ as separate tasks. That’s because they are,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “The overwhelming majority of Android users are cheapskates, and they aren’t willing to pay over-the-odds for a smartphone (certainly not the over-the-odds that Apple asks). That means Apple is going to have to shave a few percent off its profit margins (which, quite frankly, it can afford to do) in order to attract Android users into the fold.”
MacDailyNews Take: As per “shrinking.” Only in comparison with the blockbuster iPhone 6/Plus. In the last 91-period, Apple sold 51.193 million iPhones for $32.857 billion revenue. Compare that with any other phone maker in the world.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup. If Apple goes after the top of the Hee Hawers, for whom price is the only object, margins will have to be shaved to some degree.
As we explained over three years ago:
Android is pushed to users who are, in general:
a) confused about why they should be choosing an iPhone over an inferior knockoff and therefore might be less prone to understand/explore their devices’ capabilities or trust their devices with credit card info for shopping; and/or
b) enticed with “Buy One Get One Free,” “Buy One, Get Two or More Free,” or similar ($100 Gift Cards with Purchase) offers.Neither type of customer is the cream of the crop when it comes to successful engagement or coveted demographics; closer to the bottom of the barrel than the top, in fact. Android can be widespread and still demographically inferior precisely because of the way in which and to whom Android devices are marketed. Unending BOGO promos attract a seemingly unending stream of cheapskate freetards just as inane, pointless TV commercials about robots or blasting holes in concrete walls attract meatheads and dullards, not exactly the best demographics unless you’re peddling muscle building powders or grease monkey overalls.
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