Live data from Hacker News

Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition

blogs.reuters.com

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition

#11

Well, Apple cares about its competition, but I think it cares more about making a profit and they do that by build great products that they can charge a lot for. Selling a product with a high margin is actually easier in some ways than with a low margin because with a high margin you can afford to advertise, market, and push harder to sell a product. Amazon can sell the Kindle Fire at break even because it owns its o…

The iPad mini margin is definitely more than $129.

Re: Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition

#13
post #3

I would argue that the fact that Apple spent the vast majority of the iPad Mini announcement with a giant picture of the Nexus 7 behind them and comparing/contrasting features would make this article incorrect.

I agree. That part of the announcement was very defensive. Haven't seen them talk about the competition that much since the AntennaGate presser, when they compared other phones' attenuation issues. And that's when they were in damage control.

Disclosure: Apple fanboy with enough AAPL shares to count on one hand

Re: Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition

#14
post #3

I would argue that the fact that Apple spent the vast majority of the iPad Mini announcement with a giant picture of the Nexus 7 behind them and comparing/contrasting features would make this article incorrect.

I believe that Apple spent more time thinking about how not to compete with themselves (i.e. segment the product and price it just right to cause the least amount of ripples for the rest of the product portfolio) than thinking about the tablet competition. In terms of short term downside risk, there's more money at stake with the former than the latter.

Re: Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition

#16

Well, Apple cares about its competition, but I think it cares more about making a profit and they do that by build great products that they can charge a lot for. Selling a product with a high margin is actually easier in some ways than with a low margin because with a high margin you can afford to advertise, market, and push harder to sell a product. Amazon can sell the Kindle Fire at break even because it owns its o…

The iPad mini margin is definitely more than $129.

Based on what information?

Re: Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition

#17
post #3

I would argue that the fact that Apple spent the vast majority of the iPad Mini announcement with a giant picture of the Nexus 7 behind them and comparing/contrasting features would make this article incorrect.

The announcement is for people in the press who want to hear how the product compares (and will complain if it's not brought up), and secondarily people who love Apple enough to take the time to watch the announcement. You will not see a single mention of the competition on Apple's site or in any of their promotional materials, because of exactly what this article explains: aspirational brands do not compare themselv…

So are you saying despite that, Apple doesn't care about its competition?

Re: Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition

#19
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The announcement is for people in the press who want to hear how the product compares (and will complain if it's not brought up), and secondarily people who love Apple enough to take the time to watch the announcement. You will not see a single mention of the competition on Apple's site or in any of their promotional materials, because of exactly what this article explains: aspirational brands do not compare themselv…

So are you saying despite that, Apple doesn't care about its competition?

I'm saying you don't talk to your kids the way you talk to your friends. Context matters. In a context where Apple must talk about the competitors, they do. In contexts where they don't, they don't bring it up. In presenting their lineup to consumers, they will absolutely never say "this is our answer to the Google X" when they could instead say "this is a bigger/smaller/'magical new' Apple Y."

Re: Why Apple doesn’t care about its competition

#20

Well, Apple cares about its competition, but I think it cares more about making a profit and they do that by build great products that they can charge a lot for. Selling a product with a high margin is actually easier in some ways than with a low margin because with a high margin you can afford to advertise, market, and push harder to sell a product. Amazon can sell the Kindle Fire at break even because it owns its o…

The iPad mini margin is definitely more than $129.

iSupply data estimated the low-end retina iPad margin at 37%, which is consistent with a $129 profit. Apple is of course a master at extracting more profit by market segmentation.

Apple is basically the BMW of technology. The difference between a run of the mill 3-series BMW and a Honda to the average commuter is image + $10,000. The iPad yields a premium because its an iPad.

Post reply on HN