Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
And what point were you trying to make?
The first one should be: Apple makes more money than the others companies.
And the second one:... ?
I mean since the first one regards profits, since there is no explanation for the point that you are trying to make, one would expect that the second one should be profit related as well. But Apple makes most of it's money from iPhones, while for Google the overwhelming profit source is advertising.
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The second one shows market share in the US, Android's part of which is steadily declining. Surely this is not mysterious to anyone. In the context of this thread, both datasets burst the "Android is eating Apple's lunch" bubble.
The only mystifying thing about this discussion is why people cling to the "Android is winning, Apple is losing" belief. If you look at the rationale, it boils down to one point: international market share. As pointed out earlier, this is a flimsy data point on which to rest an entire argument since the market is still growing, but there you have it. One point.
Are there any other points? Let's see how Android is doing:
Profit? Losing.
Ecosystem? Losing.
Customer satisfaction? Losing.
Critical praise? Losing.
Long-term OS support? Losing.
Sold without carrier advertising and bloatware? Losing.
Profitability for developers? Losing.
Mobile engagement of its users? Losing.
Fragmentation? Losing.
Basically, losing at everything. Except for international market share. And when you examine why that is, it comes down to one thing: price. Android phones are cheaper. That is their only advantage over iOS devices. All the rest is a checklist of failures.
So it is hardly surprising that Android is capturing market share in middle-income countries like India, Brazil, and China. After all, 80% of the world's population lives in the developing world. But what are they buying, actually? It sure isn't Samsung Galaxy SIIIs. It's low-end feature phones. Phones that would be laughed out of any comparison with an iOS device. Phones that have nothing in common with the latest Android handsets.
As a result, there is always a certain elision happening when someone talks about Android. Is it the Android that—finally, after five years—competes with iOS and runs on a top-of-the-line Samsung handset, or is it the Android that's responsible for international market share, which is decidedly unimpressive? Android is so many things it's essentially absurd to lump them all together. But it's done anyway: by the media so that they can write more linkbait headlines, and by haters who will perform any equivocation to believe that Apple is losing.
Heck, even when you give people in America high-end Android phones, they don't use them as smartphones. They do less shopping, they buy fewer apps, they upload fewer photos, and they surf the web less. And while this isn't proven—and is probably impossible to prove—I strongly suspect it's because most people buy whatever their carrier pushes on them. The carriers, who hate Apple for not allowing them to pollute their phones with advertising and bloatware, push Android.
I feel bad for those people who have no Genius Bar to visit if their phone breaks, whose phones lose almost all their resale value after a couple years, who are always the last to get the best apps (if at all), who don't know if their OS will be updated after a year, whose purchase is subsidized by the sale of their personal information to advertisers, and who are consistently less satisfied with their purchases. If that's the face of victory, why win?