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Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

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Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#41

Post by lindseymysse »

I wonder, by percentage, how much of these profits are owed to click farmers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_farm

Apple devices claim to be "luxury" -- something I find hilarious, but the marketers certainly believe. It makes the clicks from an Apple device more valuable than a click from an Android device. Therefore, there's just going to be more sales to click farm companies. And they buy in bulk: https://www.equedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/clickfarm...

The entire mobile phone ecosystem is a hilarious ouroboros of marketing nonesense in the end. I would be laughing if the environmental and human costs weren't so extreme.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#42

Post by xoa »

johnchristopher wrote: post #22
conductr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks to me there’s plenty of competition. Apple just consistently wins. Consumers are willing to pay more per device and it flows through to profit. The others are competing on price and their margins reflect it.

I was talking with a MediaMarkt employee last week, we were talking smartphones and we both were dumbstruck about iphone prices. We agree it's good hardware/products but the price is insance. Yet people buy them in bulk. The brand is that strong. Apparently people also rush to replace their old models every year or two. Anyway, it just popped into my mind that I dreamt about buying a phone last night and the shop's o…

>and we both were dumbstruck about iphone prices. We agree it's good hardware/products but the price is insane.

I'm honestly dumbstruck that people like you are dumbstruck. It's not very hard, and whether you your self use powerful handheld computers/cameras much it's objectively obvious others do a lot. Just do the normal ROI calc. Apple makes a feature for this called "ScreenTime". How many hours a day is the average iPhone user on their phone? A quick google search indicates over two hours. So that's over 700 hours per year, with a life time of at least two years on average.

Do the math. What is so shocking about spending <$1/hour on something so heavily used and important? What price privacy/security focus and long term upgrades? Subtract too the resale value. What is surprising here?

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#43

Post by thefounder »

mohanmcgeek wrote: post #23
conductr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks to me there’s plenty of competition. Apple just consistently wins. Consumers are willing to pay more per device and it flows through to profit. The others are competing on price and their margins reflect it.

There isn't. Only first time smartphone buyers have a choice.. you'll lose all your appstore purchases when you switch and having repurchase everything is going to dissuade anyone from switching. Even for the first time buyers, if all their friends are on iMessage, they practically have to buy an iPhone.

Why would you need iMessages? I don't find it more useful than old school sms messaging. If you want secure messaging perhaps whatsup or signal are better options anyway.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#44

Post by neogodless »

Apple has brand loyalty, and apparently, they earned it.

In buying an Android handset, your options shift over time. Samsung has the most brand loyalty, and some high-end handsets, as well as some lower end ones. The rest of the brands seem to waffle between trying to be high-end, and being the best value.

For example, OnePlus set out to be compete against the high-end with really low prices, but over time, the prices caught up to the competition.

Google has made affordable Nexus handsets, moved towards high-end Pixels, but then backed off and started selling mainstream handsets.

It's hard, as a consumer, to know what to replace your handset with when the time comes, because what was good might still not be good. And maybe a newer brand offers a better deal that sways you.

While competition is mostly a good thing in the Android handset market, it also makes for some unpredictability, and few companies figure out where to position themselves, and maintain excellence.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#45

Post by skc »

gbrown wrote: post #2

I really wish there was more competition in this space. Here's hoping someone like Canonical tries again now that the open-hardware world is starting to expand.

A lot of people in tech like to say this but I'm never sure it's genuine. When Microsoft made a go of it there seemed to be a concerted effort to laugh them out of the room, and they had a genuinely decent product that should have been a third option in my opinion.

I think we've now reached a point where a third player is pretty much impossible

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#46

Post by criddell »

curiousllama wrote: post #28
criddell wrote: post #20

I think one of the smartest things Apple did was open physical stores and not depend on carrier stores and Best Buy. I've often wondered why their competitors don't do the same thing? Why isn't there a Samsung store a block away from every Apple store? Having a physical location for purchases, repairs, and support is why I always recommend Apple devices when somebody who isn't super technical asks me what to buy. Mic…

Apple sells a luxury product. Physical stores are the type of thing you do for a luxury product. You can buy basic macarons at the grocery store, or go to Laduree for the luxury version. Same deal.

The most expensive (non-novelty) phones sold right now are from Samsung. At every price point that Apple sells at, Samsung has a similar product.

Apple also sells their handsets through carriers, big box stores, and online through places like Amazon. You can often buy their stuff for less at these places yet the stores are still packed because people will pay more if it's a better experience.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#47

Post by acdha »

conductr wrote: post #7
gbrown wrote: post #2

I really wish there was more competition in this space. Here's hoping someone like Canonical tries again now that the open-hardware world is starting to expand.

Looks to me there’s plenty of competition. Apple just consistently wins. Consumers are willing to pay more per device and it flows through to profit. The others are competing on price and their margins reflect it.

How many consumers are even paying more? iPhones start pretty cheap — not as low as the cheapest Android phones but they're starting with much better hardware and are supported considerably longer so this starts to feel more like Sam Vimes' boots[1] where someone buying cheap Android phones spends more than an iPhone SE over the service life. Flagship Android phones cost the same, often even more, than an iPhone despite the lower performance and still have a shorter service life.

What I think it's really showing is that the Android economic model creates different incentives: Apple gets money when you buy the phone, apps, purchases in apps, and things like music or movies through their services. They certainly like it if you buy a new phone every year but all of those different groups share a common leader who wants to keep you as an Apple customer.

When you buy an Android phone, the CPU manufacturer won't see another dime until you buy a new one. A vendor like Samsung may or may not depending on whether they have some other service you use or get kickbacks from the carriers. Google likely sees ongoing revenue but they don't care about the hardware as long as it doesn't make you switch to iOS. Each of those parties adds overhead which Apple doesn't have and they will make decisions which are rational for their business but perhaps not your satisfaction.

1. https://samvimesbootstheory.com/

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#48

Post by cs702 »

NineStarPoint wrote: post #25
cs702 wrote: post #18

...with only a 13% share of units. That is, all other vendors together sold 87% of units, but earned only a combined 25% of industry-wide profit. The vast majority of those other vendors are companies headquartered in Asian countries with a long history of promoting market share, access to information, and knowledge transfer at the expense of short-term profit. They might be making less money willingly to grow/mainta…

I expect it’s more about the competition than those companies willingly leaving that level of profit on the table. In the android market, people have the option of switching to a competitor if you’re not price competitive yourself. For IOS, apple is the only game in town on hardware.

Maybe. I'm not so sure. In theory, a company like, say, Samsung could stop making cheaper, money-losing phones and invest primarily on making increasingly better, premium, profitable phones like the Galaxy Fold, but they choose not to do that, year after year.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#49

Post by malshe »

evilduck wrote: post #17
hnaccount_rng wrote: post #9

Wasn’t it more than 100% a couple of years ago?

How do you capture more then 100% of a market?

I believe it was because a large majority was making losses. So the total profit was less than Apple’s profit alone.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#50

Post by InTheArena »

ericmay wrote: post #14
InTheArena wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there will be - but it will be in the form of a Chinese mandate to provide phones that do not use Western Operating systems or without western data privacy protections. Ideas like what Canonical and Firefox tried to do were great, but didn't have enough in it for the powers that be to be successful.

Yea but kind of a dangerous game to continue playing - does China want to have factories and suppliers close down and relocate out of China? Where will those people work? It may happen anyway but these scenarios are never easy or clean-cut.

China has no problem using the power of the state to ensure that factories and suppliers don't relocate out of china.
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