Quote:
Originally Posted by holymadness
You are right that anything could happen, but that doesn't make it likely.
Apple has an interest in making its ecosystem as attractive as possible, even if that means opening itself up to competing services. Its rivals have an enormous interest in making sure their products and services are available on iOS, so long as Apple continues to create the most successful phones and tablets on the market and its users continue to spend more money than the average consumer.
I don't see either of those reasons changing very soon.
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If you think of Value as a four quadrant graph with most/best features and lowest price in the upper right corner, Apple is in the upper left corner. It's easier for low cost manufacturers to add/improve features than for high margin manufacturers to lower cost. There's a Z axis to this graph. It's brand. Apple has owned the Z axis. That Z axis acts as inertia. It slows the impact of competing cost/feature improvements. Apple has used this inertia to hold off competitors with great success. The problem with inertia is that once it slips, the fall is fast. Amazon owns price and customer service. Amazon is competitive on features. Amazon has a good brand. It's not Apple, but it's good. I know a lot of iPad/iTunes users, but I don't know a lot of new iPad/iTunes users. All Kindle/Prime users are new. All those new Kindle/Prime users are likely aPhone customers. Pretty soon, Amazon is going to grab some of that z axis.