Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021 • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by tbrock » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:30 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #48

NineStarPoint wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If they did they would be dead in a year. They sell a fraction of the >$1000 phones apple sells by the shipload. Their bread and butter is the cheap stuff.

The same way nobody wants to spent $35k on a honda when they could have a tesla.

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

#72

Post by lostgame » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:30 PM UTC

skc wrote: post #45

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

Also, Palm's WebOS was fantastic - the issues were too little, too late; stupid carrier exclusivity, and underpowered hardware.

WebOS had some real potential, too.

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

#73

Post by oblio » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:30 PM UTC

1cvmask wrote: post #32

I think we might be missing the big picture here. Apple captures 75% of the profit from handset market share. The rest is split between high end Android devices from say Samsung and low-end commodity Shanzhan android devices. But in the Android sphere Google is clearly capturing the profits from Android devices on software. https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/21/10810834/android-generate... In addition to profits, Google…

From Wintel to Goocomm.

Android OEM are (almost) commodity product makers.

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

#74

Post by mytailorisrich » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:30 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #44

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 price…

Huawei went after Apple, including on quality. They were shot down right when their sales overtook Apple's (maybe a coincidence, who knows...)

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

#75

Post by dhritzkiv » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

cs702 wrote: post #48

NineStarPoint wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do people want the Fold? (No snark - genuinely asking)

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

#76

Post by reayn » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

judge2020 wrote: post #37

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…

This also likely doesn't account for post-sale profit, ie. other manufacturers might have spyware/"sponsored content" baked into the OS to recoup some margin.

Can confirm this is how a lot of the Xiamo Co.'s cheaper phones (brands like Poco/Vivo i think?) are able to sell hardware that competes way above its weight at such unbelievable low prices.

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

#77

Post by mnholt » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

mohanmcgeek wrote: post #36

lapdanz wrote: post #4

Apple will dominate the market until the market itself becomes irrelevant. Good news for Apple is that in the next 5 years I don’t see something in the horizon to challenge the market of smartphones.

There's definitely something: Google, Microsoft or Amazon launching a sub $300 smartphone and an ad campaign making fun of people spending a thousand dollars for nothing extra. It feels like FAAMG minus Google don't want to compete with each other on the consumer side.

If it was that easy they would have already done it. You are drastically oversimplifying the market, network and ecosystem effects. The market has shown that it will gobble up $1000 phones, why sell one at $300? Apple has built a network that encourages people to stay in it (iMessage for example). They have also built an ecosystem of products that harmonize well. The market seems to enjoy this.

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

#78

Post by jxidjhdhdhdhfhf » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:32 PM UTC

mohanmcgeek wrote: post #36

lapdanz wrote: post #4

Apple will dominate the market until the market itself becomes irrelevant. Good news for Apple is that in the next 5 years I don’t see something in the horizon to challenge the market of smartphones.

There's definitely something: Google, Microsoft or Amazon launching a sub $300 smartphone and an ad campaign making fun of people spending a thousand dollars for nothing extra. It feels like FAAMG minus Google don't want to compete with each other on the consumer side.

Nah. Half the reason people buy iPhones is to show other people they aren't poor. Buying a sub-$300 phone doesn't achieve that goal.

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

#79

Post by jvolkman » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:33 PM UTC

thefounder wrote: post #54

tootie wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's tons of competition in terms of products, but Apple wins on marketing every time. They are able to charge a massive markup by leveraging their market placement as a luxury brand.

Apple wins because of its software not because of its marketing. It seems the competition still doesn't get that Android is not good enough to compete with Apple on the luxury/premium market. Most of the "extra" software developed by the competition is bloatware and spyware. The core design is developed only by Google who is weaker on design than Apple. That's why Apple gets the bulk of the premium market and leaves…

This is pretty subjective. I find iOS pretty aggravating and lacking after using Google's (Pixel) variant of Android for years.

Agree that many manufacturers stuff bloatware onto their devices, but the Pixels don't have that problem.

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

#80

Post by wpietri » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #44

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 price…

Isn't it pretty easy to to get a good phone? If people buy line A from brand B and are happy with it, I'd expect that 2-3 years later when they buy the latest A from B, they'd get a phone that's as good or better.

I mention this because most people are satisficers, not maximizers. [1] They want a good phone, not the best phone. So I suspect that for most consumers, this isn't particularly a hard choice. They're going to buy the same one or ask a friend or see a review or get the one the phone store person recommends.

The Android market is particularly hard for maximizers, though, because there are a bunch of companies working hard to have the best phone for a given niche.

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/science-choice/20150...