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Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

blog.raavel.com

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Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#71

Post by [deleted] »

hazov wrote: post #63
alayne wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google doesn't make any money off their Nexus devices. They sell them close to cost. Unless Apple is planning to convert itself into an advertising company (like Google), I don't think holding out the Nexus branded devices as an example to follow is reasonable. Samsung is really the only player making significant money in the Android space. I think it makes more sense to look at what they are doing.

It's now written on the wall for everyone to see that devices will fall in price in the next decade and with it will go profit margins, money will be made by volume of sales, Samsung is just where like Nokia once was in this place, Google just want to accelerate that because it makes business sense to them. Apple already realized that as their recent announcement demonstrated.

[deleted]

Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#72

Post by jinushaun »

badman_ting wrote: post #64
sambeau wrote: post #13

The stock pretty much always falls after Apple announce something. I assume the reasons are complex — anything new is a risk, anything old is a lower-margin version. Historically, you cannot make any accurate predictions of Apple's success or failure based on The Market's reaction to a keynote. That leaves the other point: "Meh". Yes, I'm sure everyone wants Apple to announce something groundbreaking and industry def…

Using the stock market as a judge is tricky. I agree that the price of AAPL is a poor indicator of how their products will perform in the market is folly. However, Steve Ballmer not moving MSFT in ten years really was a problem. It is not unprecedented for Apple to release what appears to be an incremental revision of a product (or even a "worse" one) to great commercial success, and that is probably what will happen…

With the right marketing, the C in 5C doesn't stand for cheap. Most likely, only tech nerds will make that comparison. Regular consumers will probably focus on the fun colors instead. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple spend more money marketing the 5C than the 5S to train consumers to think that way. They did that successfully with the Shuffle –no screen!!! It's safe to assume they'll be as successful with the 5C.

Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#73

Post by grandalf »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #67
pinaceae wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so what are the sales numbers of the cited best-in-class phones? HTC in particular seems like a dead man walking.

We were discussing quality and innovation. If you want to talk sales, Android smartphones had nearly 5x the sales of iOS smartphones last quarter.

Have you ever been to a Verizon, T-Mobile, or AT&T store? There are commissioned salespeople ready to lie about the phone and sell a contract.

I'd guess that 80% of Android purchasers didn't really buy the phone, someone aggressively sold it to them, and, especially if it was a cheapo phone with lots of carrier add-ons, they probably hate it and are resentful of being locked into the contract. Chances are few of them ever compared their phone side by side to an iPhone.

If Apple times it right, when this wave of disgruntled customers come out of contracts, a lower priced iPhone could take much of that market share.

Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#74

Post by grandalf »

dasil003 wrote: post #48
faet wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Is Android a company now, with singular (if faulty) vision and execution? To you and I? No. To your parents or the general public? Yes. They will buy one low end android phone, it was suck, they will say "Android is terrible". I know people who went from iPhone 4 to a free Android phone and are wanting to return to apple. The same goes for laptop companies. They'll buy the cheapest Dell. It'll fall apart in 6 months…

Agreed no one knows what Android is. However, there's no sign that anyone is concluding that "Android is terrible". People who buy cheap phones are not going to be comparing to the latest iPhone.

That has only been true b/c the starting price point for iPhone has been so high and the commissioned salespeople in mobile phone stores just want to sell a contract and don't care about overall customer satisfaction.

Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#75

Post by hazov »

[deleted] wrote: post #71
hazov wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's now written on the wall for everyone to see that devices will fall in price in the next decade and with it will go profit margins, money will be made by volume of sales, Samsung is just where like Nokia once was in this place, Google just want to accelerate that because it makes business sense to them. Apple already realized that as their recent announcement demonstrated.

[deleted]

I didn't said it was, but if you think their high margins can be sustained forever then I think the discussion is over and you're just cheering for Apple, nothing wrong with that, but it's not what I think is sensible for people to do, cheer for Apple, Google, MS or whatever.

Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#77

Post by saturdaysaint »

noir_lord wrote: post #68
chmars wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As someone who already owns a Nexus 4 and a 1st gen Nexus 7 they are already a > commodity, I bought my N4 for half what an iPhone 5 costs. Good for you. Premium products are not for everyone. Part of the Apple premium products is for example that I can simply walk into the next Apple Store to get support in case of any problems. From my home, I can reach two Apple Stores by public transport in about 30 minutes, fo…

> Good for you. Premium products are not for everyone. Ouch, you are off course right, my nexus 4 only has 1280x768 screen vs the 960x640 screen in your 4S and as a non-premium product owner I only get 110% the talktime and a piddling 200% standby time plus your premium product has a full 512Mb RAM vs the miniscule 2Gb in my non-premium product and the 0.3 megapixel front camera vs the 1.3megapixel camera in mine is…

I own a new Nexus 7 and its interface still feels gummy and slow compared to my 3 year old iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 is in another league. It's amazing that Google really hasn't figured out scrolling. I don't know what good specs are when they don't seem to translate to performance.

The Play Store is alright, but it's like going from HBO to cable - it literally looks like the iOS store a year ago. Games and music creation are particularly behind.

I like some things about Android, and if Apple went out of business I wouldn't lose much sleep, but there are still things about the iPhone worth paying a premium for.

Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#78

Post by pjmlp »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #50
faet wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Is Android a company now, with singular (if faulty) vision and execution? To you and I? No. To your parents or the general public? Yes. They will buy one low end android phone, it was suck, they will say "Android is terrible". I know people who went from iPhone 4 to a free Android phone and are wanting to return to apple. The same goes for laptop companies. They'll buy the cheapest Dell. It'll fall apart in 6 months…

> They'll buy the cheapest Dell. It'll fall apart in 6 months. "Dells are terrible". But at least Dell is a single company / manufacturer and not a brand name. Of course, said experience could make people go "Laptops are terrible". Actually, it does, and they go right back to their Macbooks.

> Actually, it does, and they go right back to their Macbooks.

In countries where people can afford them.

Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#79

Post by pjmlp »

masklinn wrote: post #10
probablyfiction wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XP was the first decent Windows release since Windows 95, and consumers adopted it en masse. However, it was riddled with security flaws and that makes it less attractive when looking at it in hindsight.

> XP was the first decent Windows release since Windows 95 I'm sure you mean "2000" not "XP".

Actually NT 4 was already quite good.

As soon as I got access to Windows NT 4 Workstation, it became my Windows default install, alongside Mandrake Linux back in the day.

Re: Apple’s “Windows 95″ Problem

#80

Post by samspenc »

Roboprog wrote: post #30

Windows 95 problem? Did Apple make an overhyped system that was a steaming, crashing, pile? You remember: "Start me up! ... You'd make a grown man cry----y!" I guess 95 sold, but man it was awful. I switched to Linux about 6 months earlier. The real innovation for MS was earlier in NT, but MS wasn't pushing that to consumers. Comparing iOS to Win95 just seems like a totally off comparison. Maybe comparing iOS to XBox…

But it was a smash hit and a better product, compared to Windows 3.11. ;)
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