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Authored by: DannyB on Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 05:42 PM EDT |
It could simply be that Android is more cool because Apple has lost sufficient
coolness and damaged its brand via the patent wars.
Let's face it. Most people, when they understand what is happening, do not
think that is cool. At all.
Younger males are likely to understand what is going on.
Losing people's trust is easy. Getting it back is hard.
Even some Apple fanboys I know don't see Apple as quite so cool. One of them
had told me that 'at some point' Apple should stop the patent wars and get back
to innovation. That was about six months ago. I just got back from traveling
to DC to hang out with him and a couple friends. He didn't seem quite the
fanboy he used to be.
The funny thing is that in the early 1990's, I had evangelized him into becoming
an Apple fanboy. :-)
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The price of freedom is eternal litigation.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, May 03 2013 @ 12:17 AM EDT |
Google has built this huge brand image on technological excellence and also
value (search is free as far as the masses are concerned).
People like Google and that then translates into their interaction with their
technology -- they want more Google because it is seen as useful and cool.
It is also cheaper at all price points and has a healthy set of hardware
competitors.
I have to say comparing my daughter's iPhone-4S to my Nexus 4, on looks, the
iPhone form factor looks dated too. And everyone has an iPhone. No one has a
Nexus 4.
It is not over for Apple, but they will have their challenges. In general,
Google's ethos to prefer open to closed solutions seems to be giving them a
longer term competitive advantage. Eventually Apple will need to live on lower
gross margins, and with their high cost base, it may be difficult for them to
compete long term.
I keep looking at what I believe are the only unbiased Web statistics around --
Wikimedia. Google is absolutely winning. On the desktop, Chrome beats IE and
Safari, and even Firefox hands down. On the cellphone, Android is starting to
beat IOS for the first time in April -- no one else has significant share. On
the tablet, IOS still holds a commanding lead. But for how long as the price
disadvantage works against them.
From where I stand, Microsoft's rear-guard action is more interesting in
operating systems. And in office productivity. They are starting to loose
there because they are loosing in the above areas (search, browsers, mobile,
plus internet servers). It looks to me that for the first time Libre/Open
Office is eating into their share (particularly for value conscious home users),
and then we have Google Apps cloud based approach. Corporate is trying to avoid
vendor lock-in, and it looks like the use of MS Exchange corporate email's days
are numbered. They are using every intellectual property trick in the book to
lock in the user base, and they are still loosing.
I am very interested to see how the landscape changes in the next 5 years as
neither Microsoft nor Apple can support their income statement on their
currently overly inflated gross margins on their software (Microsoft and Apple)
and hardware (Apple) products.
Could you imagine that in 1982 dollars we were spending $5000 of household
income on a PC? How does that compare with the smaller but now educated
villager in West Africa or Rural India spending $500 on Microsoft or Apple
hardware + software. And how many marginally employed North American consumers
will switch to save an extra $400 per year on an overpriced cellphone, or $500
on hardware plus software?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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