Which sold less well than the Apple II, which sold less well than the Commodore 64. A GUI made little difference back then in worldwide market share.
But they got developers interested.
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Apple's Smartphone Market Share Slips as Huawei, Lenovo Make Gains
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Which sold less well than the Apple II, which sold less well than the Commodore 64. A GUI made little difference back then in worldwide market share.
But they got developers interested.
Again, those are global. IDC was talking about the US.
What the Apple CFO said was:
"We achieved strong double digit Mac growth across many countries, including the U.S. Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Australia, China, India and the Middle-East. This growth is particularly impressive, given the contraction of the overall PC market. Macs have now gained global market share for 32 of the last 33 quarters."
This is common in their earnings calls. Apple talks about quarters, except when they specifically call out that a certain figure is something else like YoY.
The other thing that's common is Apple quoting percentages in their calls, when they're more impressive than the actual change in quantities (which don't necessarily have to be much for a double digit increase, as happened with the US between quarters).
To repeat, the AI article mixed global and US figures to make it sound like IDC and Gartner were wrong. They could indeed be wrong, but not for the reasons that the article claimed.
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Apple's emphasis on device profit margin means that their typical customers are willing to spend more money on stuff. Worldwide iOS app revenue is a lot higher than all other mobile ecosystems together, even with an iOS worldwide smartphone share way way under 20%. Lots of developers will stick around for their cut of this multi-Billion dollar pie... the big ones who want to make big money, and the indies who want to play viral app lotto for a bigger lucky payoff.
Going after profitable (for software as well) customers worked well for the Mac developer community until around the period when selling Macs wasn't really profitable (before the iMac took off), at a worldwide market share under 5%. That can happen again, but very unlikely in the next couple years.
First, you are mixing the modern smartphones with the old semi-smartphones. When iPhone was first released, it had almost 100% market share of the real smartphones.
Second, a lot of people were still regarding their real smartphones almost the same way as the dummy phones, but with the society improvement, the correct recognition is gradually becoming the main stream — it’s a extremely mobile computer, cell phone capability is just a tiny part of it.
Lastly, the most important part you are having wrong understanding -- for the developer support that affects public recognition of a computer/smartphone platform’s compatibility / usability, the commercial ones don’t really matter much, because most platforms will be supported by them, since none of these platforms is a ignorable source of income, when the whole market base is big enough. The ones really matter much are the ones developing (free) support software for their real businesses (so comes this specific expression in my previous comment), for these developers, supporting ~80-85% of their customer base is the sweet balance point between software development investment and good enough customer support.
A lot of my friends' families who were first time smartphone user got tricked into buying Samsung handsets believing as they were told that iPhone was crap product. I don't blame them, they had no clue whatsoever. Now after a few months of using Galaxy phones, most start to notice the teribbad phones that Samsung actually produced. And as a matter of fact, I know for sure that quite a lof of people actually waiting for the new iPhone release. I predict a booming sales for iPhone 6, more so than 5s, even 5.
Do I need to pull up a list of the things the iPhone couldn't do when it was first released?
Calling the 2007 iPhone the first "real" smartphone is quite a stretch.
Yeah things have changed quite a bit since then. But in 2007... there were smartphone running Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm, etc. The smartphone market was full of players. And Apple started at 0%
But the iPhone didn't get anywhere close to 100% by any definition of what a smartphone is.
I love the iPhone too... but you can't give it that much credit.
I don't quite understand what you are saying. But I do know this:
Android has had the most market share for years... yet there are still apps that are iOS-first or iOS-only... from big developers and small developers.
I don't see any evidence of developers dropping iOS and start focusing on Android.
It should have already happened... but it didn't. Why? Because iOS makes too much money for developers.
Whether it was 70% Android vs 20% iOS... or 80% Android vs 10% iOS... only one of those platforms delivers the results.
And it's not the one with the most market share.
That's what RIM thought when Blackberry's were still outselling iPhones (and Palm and MS before both of them). Didn't work out that way. Even with nearly 100% of enterprise market share and the vast majority of enterprise developers, that ship still sunk.
It also took 5 years for Apple to convince enterprises that iOS was secure and manageable enough for them. Google has barely started anything close to convincing, if that.
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Actually, if you talk to a lot of mobile devs, there's a slight migration in the opposite direction, towards iOS first, even though the app revenue in the Android market has been growing strongly lately. Why? Android UI customization, testing and QA costs, due to vastly greater market fragmentation issues. The big Android market share is currently making things worse in this area.
In general, iPhone sales are starting to slow down because of the anticipation of the iPhone 6 models, which are the most radical change to the iPhone since the iPhone 4 of 2010. If the new iPhone model lives up to its promises, Samsung could kiss their strong sales of the Galaxy Note phablets goodbye....
Again, you are jumping to an unreasonable conclusion. Maestri was obviously talking about double digit year over year growth in each of those countries. Global quarterly growth was only 5%. How could the Mac grow double digits in "U.S. Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Australia, China, India and the Middle-East" and only grow 5% globally? That doesn't make any sense.
Double digit growth in each of those countries clearly corresponds to the 18% YOY growth globally.
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It's simple.
Computers succeed by the quality and quantity of apps advisable on the hardware. Not the hardware itself.
Windows succeeded by a large quantity of software, with Microsoft itself producing one of the top business software for it, Office.
With the vast majority of companies using windows, piracy for home use lead to home PC numbers gaining.
Eventually developers saw that the Windows market was the most profitable, and high piracy loss could be tolerated.
On Mac, fewer customers meant fewer customers, and higher cost to insure a profit
What is the magic number is a great question, but I guess 15-20% market share in the USA. The ease of development, negligible piracy, and higher income potential could allow for a lower point, perhaps 9%.
If android market share keeps growing, eventually you will see the huge market base outweigh all the advantages in the iOS.
A question to you too:
If iOS had a 2% market share, me as Windows Phone and Blackburry, will you still see the same amount developer support?
Only if that "huge" market base spends money.
Back when the PalmOS was less than 2% the size of Windows, developers flocked to it. Why? Because users were spending money on apps. As long as iOS users spend more money per user on apps, it will attract development, even at a tiny market share.
You are comparing apples to oranges.
Palm was a great pocket digital organizer what would run weeks on 2x AAA battery
The smallest windows notebook was 2lb with only a few hours of power.
Even the WinCE products where not much better.
But then Microsoft spent huge sumps to make WinCE / PocketPC products better, Palm lost market share.
Where is PalmOS today?
Supports my case perfectly.
Palm sold it, stopped making great hardware for it, and then much of its developer community jumped to iPhoneOS even when the iPhone had a much smaller percentage of the user base than Windows Mobile or Symbian. Why? Because iPhone users were spending more per user on apps.
The other problem was that PalmGear went bankrupt (or nearly so) and stopped paying PalmOS developers. No money. No developers. Apple has enough cash reserves that I doubt that the iTunes store will declare bankruptcy anytime soon.
According to Gartner, the worldwide software market was over $400B last year. iOS apps were only maybe 2% of that.
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iPhone was a much better product, that's why.
Yes people where spending more on iOS apps, but that is not the primary reason.
A better hardware, an established Eco system, easier development tools, easier to use OS, compatibility, etc. Simply a bigger return on product is just one of several factors.
That Gartner report probably includes all OS's. link please.
What are the other factors? Why do you say palm went under other than market share?
Its been proven time and.time again that marketshare has no effect on apple other then positive. They're growing in every metric except market share. It becomes hard to take ppl seriously when all evidence points that market share has no effect on apples bottom line, but they keep saying it's important.
Android is at 85% share globally. The other 15% are divided between everyone else. Apple has been growing for almost two yrs now.
Exactly. As long as Apple ships better products that customers are willing to pay a profitable amount more for than for generics, lots of developers will keep developing for it, even if the market share is in the low single digits. Better devices creates better software customers.
Palm did go under due to dwindling sales, to the point it was selling less every quarter.
Why they lose market share? Developers going to Enterprise and big corporate deals via BB, and or to consumer level WinCE devices that started to be better. In fact, WinCE was a listened scheme, so many makers made hardware to run WinCE, while Palm pretty much went alone (Sony only I know bought in).
So again proof that market share is a major factor.
And once again Apple almost went bankrupt because of dwindling market share and resulting lack of developers.
More examples:
Sun and Silicon Graphics, and NeXT. All of them could not get the developers to make software for those OS. They where expensive systems that could do very few things (but did them extremely well). Companies had to get a PC to use other apps to do their work.
Eventually they used several cheap computers instead of 1 expensive one. Exactly the case for my fathers company in oil industry.
I am not saying Market Share is the most important factor, but it is a key factor for a computer products relevance, and become critical at a certain level.
A store metaphor may work: a 50,000 sq foot store opens up in town with a great selection (Kohls?), huge crowds come in, sales are great, the community grows.
Then a WalMart opens up, and it has everything, cheaper in a bigger store. Everyone go there.
The first store still has a good traffic, and new residence go to both so sales still increase, but not as before.
Meanwhile the Walmart, with all that profit, expands into a Super Walmart, attracting more customers, who are looking for all the sales go there.
I forgot, in this age exclusivity is another factor. Things only on iPhone or iOS will act as market share, depending on region.
iPhone was a huge jump in design and technology, nothing else compared, that's why.
Today it does not that far advanced. Yes it is better, but the competition is very close behind it.
Hey look i get the point youre trying to make its just flawed. Palm went under because they stopped advancing and stopped making products that people wanted. This led to lower sales, lower marketshare and eventually they turned into crap.
You cant compare the apple of today to the apple that nearly went bankrupt...theres no comparison.
Again, apple is GROWING. Theyre selling more product than they ever have in their thirty plus yr history. This is the most successful this company has ever been. Theyre bringing in oil company money. People are buying 50 million of their phones in a qtr.
Marketshare has been plummeting for apple for at least two years now. Yet developers still go to ios first, they still sell more phones than almost all their competitors combined, and they make more money than most companies have ever made in the history of all business!
The only thing that will hurt apple is if their sales begin to drop. If android hits 90% marketshare, developers arent suddenly going to pack up and leave.
Youre trying to compare apples to oranges.
That was exactly the same rhetoric from Apple in the 80's and early 90's.
they where still making great sales, selling more computers every year, until the bottom suddenly dropped out in mid 90's. (despite the fact PowerPC Macs performed very well, and the PowerBook 500 was the best selling notebook in history.
Also you are Wong here.
It's not plummeting market share for Apple, the chart clearly shows a stagnation of market share, and growth of Android at loss too other platforms.
If Apple was doing well, then it would be getting customers from the dying brands, instead it looks like most moved to Android. Now it will be a harder battle to gain customers from the dominant Andorid.
Optimistically, I can see Apple gaining significant marketshare over next year with its big iPhone and other products.
And THAT remindes me, Apple has made some bad mistakes in past with its "my way or highway", Jobs himself admitted to audience at least once. Not to mention the Maps debacle.
Not quite. The numbers tell a different story. Let's look at the numbers from those year.
In 1987, the sales was $2,661 mil. with profit of
In 1992, the sales was $7,087 mil.
(despite the fact PowerPC Macs performed very well, and the PowerBook 500 was the best selling notebook in history.
Also you are Wong here.
It's not plummeting market share for Apple, the chart clearly shows a stagnation of market share, and growth of Android at loss too other platforms.
If Apple was doing well, then it would be getting customers from the dying brands, instead it looks like most moved to Android. Now it will be a harder battle to gain customers from the dominant Andorid.
Optimistically, I can see Apple gaining significant marketshare over next year with its big iPhone and other products.
And THAT remindes me, Apple has made some bad mistakes in past with its "my way or highway", Jobs himself admitted to audience at least once. Not to mention the Maps debacle.[/QUOTE]
It depends on if that 2% likes to spend money. Developers will go where the money is.
You think that if iOS has "very low" market share and Android has "very high" market share... developers will favor Android.
But look at what is happening already: Android has 85% smartphone market share and Apple 12%
By that math... Android should be delivering 7 times the app revenue based on smartphone market share.
But it's not.
App revenue is NOT directly related to market share.
Again... developers go where the money is... and it's still iOS.
If 80% vs 12% isn't enough to sway developers away from iOS... I don't see how 97% vs 2% will either.
But market share isn't the only factor developers look at... as market share only refers to the sales over the last 3 months. You're completely forgetting about installed base... which is ALL active devices and their users who can buy a developer's app.
There are a billion Android devices out in the world right now... and 500 million iOS devices out in the world right now.
Once again... logic would suggest twice as much app revenue on Android vs iOS.
But it's not.
I read an article not too long ago that said: "Google Android users in total are spending around half as much on apps on more than twice the user base..."
Let's see that again:
Android has TWICE as many users... but spends HALF as much.
Interesting
...sigh. It's not the same situation. As someone already said they were not making nearly as much money as they are now, nor were they selling nearly as much product. It's two completely different situations, and I'm not sure if your just ignoring that to try to make your point seem correct?
Apple's smartphone marketshare was at nearly 25% a couple years ago, now it's at 11. iPads share was around 80% it's below 30 now. What's your definition of plummeting? And what's your definition of stagnation?
I can't argue with someone who is saying Apple is not doing well.
The maps "debacle" is just an overblown attempt to make Apple look like a failure.
Good example. It's the innovators dilemma.
But that's not happening to Apple. Currently, more customers switch from Android devices to iOS devices than vice versa. They seem to be the more profitable customers as well. Probably taking some mobile developer interest with them. To iOS, not vice versa.
Unlike the innovators dilemma examples, Apple also has the advantage of economy of scale over every Android device maker except Samsung (whose latest financials did not look that great).
Android seems be Apple's farm team. Doesn't matter how big Android gets as long as it keeps feeding the best recruits (paid app customers) up to Apple.
Sure it does. In fact, it's easy since the quantities involved are relatively small, allowing small increases to have a big effect.
Also, the IDC stats say that US sales declined YoY, so Apple is not likely to quote a YoY comparison.
Related to that, and quite ironically, AppleInsider themselves used those EXACT same IDC numbers.. in an article just two weeks before the Dilger article... to prove that US sales were down YoY and China sales were up. Talk about keeping your cake and eating it too!
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Anyway, it works out like this:
Between 2Q and 3Q 2014, Mac global sales rose 4.1m to 4.4m, an increase of about 300K between quarters.
There are plenty of sources showing roughly how Apple's sales are distributed around the world, so we can figure about how much of that 300K is required for the double digit increases that Apple claimed for the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Australia, China, India and the Middle-East.
It looks like a 300K increase (5% global) could indeed create double-digit quarterly increases in just the countries that Apple named.
Using YoY instead, the increases would've been much more for some regions, but that would not have allowed Apple to brag about so many. It would've looked bad to have to leave out the US, for example.