Apple's iPhone takes 80 percent of China's booming premium phone market

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 57
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    I've never understood the mentality of people who say things like that. It's like claiming that Mercedes is doomed because they don't have a cheap subcompact for emerging markets.....

    Except they do.

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  • Reply 22 of 57
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    lostkiwi wrote: »
    I know anecdotes are not worth much, but there it is...

    Anecdotes have their place so I'm always up for stories that either backup or go against an article.
  • Reply 23 of 57
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fred Maxwell View Post

     

     

    I've never understood the mentality of people who say things like that. It's like claiming that Mercedes is doomed because they don't have a cheap subcompact for emerging markets, or that Louis Vuitton is destined to fail because they don't have a line of $30 purses for low-income women. You don't maintain a premium brand image by selling low-end, cheap products.  

     

    It's why Nissan, Toyota, and Honda had to create the Infiniti, Lexus, and Acura brands respectively. Customers in the market for upscale, luxury vehicles don't want something wearing the same badge as a Sentra, Yaris, or a Civic.


    The argument comes from the OS wars, cola wars, etc.   Simple for analysts to grasp.

     

    OSes effectively were networks, and Metcalf's Law says the value of the network squared when the number of users doubled, and arguably will attract the best developers, who will write the best apps who will attract more customers, etc.    Hence, if there is someone, anyone who gains 50% marketshare and is rising, (Windows 95), all the rest are doomed.

     

    I think today Gruber at DaringFireball.net captures the 'ecosystem' aspect and how some customers are 'better' than others.    That's the key...  Today the ecosystem is more than shrink-wrapped SW and closed office productivity SW...  it's cloud based iron and Petabytes of information  that has thin but critical veneer at the endpoint.   That veneer must always work, be amazingly intuitive,  be easy to write code against, and have the critical support structures to protect all these consumers and vendors from being hacked.    This is the iOS ecosystem.

     

    Extending your car analogy... Apple 'Car Owners' not only buy the premium car, which comes in 3 coupes and 2 sedans, almost all running the latest ignition, convenience panel and transmission firmware , but they drive more, buy more gas, pay more in highway taxes (data fees), and drive to places to buy things... a lot of things... and they buy lots of add-ons to the car (apps), and aftermarket suppliers can easily integrate into the car in a way that makes the ride even nicer.    

     

    The other car makers, even ones with expensive larger vehicles as well as the cheaper ones... seem to be driving less, to fewer places, and they buy less stuff, there are 100's of different sizes and shapes, some with 5 wheels, some with 2 trailer hitches,  And mfgr improvements to the electronic ignition and transmission  are typically controlled by the oil companies, who sometimes decide it's not worth the hassle of updating... making it even harder for the aftermarket people to make stuff for those autos.

  • Reply 24 of 57
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lostkiwi View Post

     

    I was staggered at how many iPhone users I saw around in Shanghai.  I know anecdotes are not worth much, but there it is...


    The grey market is/was huge.   Scarcity in and of itself drives the bling aspect of the iPhone.

  • Reply 25 of 57
    aaronjaaronj Posts: 1,595member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff View Post

     

    The grey market is/was huge.   Scarcity in and of itself drives the bling aspect of the iPhone.


     

    Whenever I hear the word "bling" now I'm reminded of Alien's epic rant about all of his "sh*t" and how awesome he is because of it.  Unfortunately, I can't reproduce it here due to language issues. :)

     

    Man, I may have to rematch that again tonight!

  • Reply 26 of 57
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anakin1992 View Post

     

    not sure where that 700M number come from. but one thing for sure is that lot of iPhone users in china are starting to have 2 iPhones in hand: one for regular usage, while another one is reserved exclusively for banking/online payment etc. online payment over phone is very good in china, but ppl lost confidence on security. 

     

    of course, these folks can afford iPhone and money is not issue for them as i guess.

     

    Originally Posted by tooltalk View Post


     

     

    Go read the original article by Benedict Evans DED cited.  The title of the article goes, "700m smartphones & tablets in China."  So it's not just the iPhones, but also the iPads, etc -- in another word, they are comparing all Android devices vs all iOS devices, not Android smartphones vs Apple iPhones, although the charts clearly indicate it's "distribution of price range in smartphones in China."

  • Reply 27 of 57
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post





    It was trademarked here at AI.



    Sadly, reflecting the times -- whence not many people seem to give much of a hoot about IP issues -- no one bothers with the 'Apple is doomed™' any more. image

     

    No it wasn't. Apple is Doomed was trademarked in the mid-90s on Slashdot, and was turned into Meme after the NeXT merger.

  • Reply 28 of 57
    aaronjaaronj Posts: 1,595member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post

     

     

    No it wasn't. Apple is Doomed was trademarked in the mid-90s on Slashdot, and was turned into Meme after the NeXT merger.


     

    Oh man.  The memories of a time when /. was actually worth reading. *sigh* :(

  • Reply 29 of 57
    dnd0psdnd0ps Posts: 253member
    The entire article is about Apple's unexpected success in China's high-end smartphone market.

    How can you say that "Apple is doomed" when they have been increasing their market share in the U.S. and now China, too.  Right now, Apple has 41.6% of all U.S. smartphone subscribers, up 1% from the previous quarter.  They outsell Samsung, their closest competitor, by 45% to 26%. <span style="line-height:1.4em;">In the desirable high-income, advanced degree market in the U.S., Apple outsells</span>
    <span style="line-height:1.4em;"> all other smartphones combined. </span>


    Could you provide the rationale for your claim?  Or were you being sarcastic?

    Sarcasm. You must be new around here.
    I've never understood the mentality of people who say things like that. It's like claiming that Mercedes is doomed because they don't have a cheap subcompact for emerging markets, or that Louis Vuitton is destined to fail because they don't have a line of $30 purses for low-income women. You don't maintain a premium brand image by selling low-end, cheap products.  

    It's why Nissan, Toyota, and Honda had to create the Infiniti, Lexus, and Acura brands respectively. Customers in the market for upscale, luxury vehicles don't want something wearing the same badge as a Sentra, Yaris, or a Civic.
    Yes. And if you frequent Weibo or the Chinese Web Blogs I see an interesting shift away from Android. China has it's share of Apple fanboys, while reviews of Android phones almost always start with their poor user experience, lack of apps etc. this is a country that relies heavily on word of mouth reviews. Despite the rise of local brands like Xiao mi, none has come close to Apples brand and quality. Besides, the newly rich In china craves luxury brands as a sort of status symbol for their wealth.
    How can they show how rich they are with cheap plastic? As China's income rises iPhone sales are bound to follow.
  • Reply 30 of 57
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    dnd0ps wrote: »
    Sarcasm. You must be new around here.


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  • Reply 31 of 57
    plovellplovell Posts: 824member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AaronJ View Post

     

     

    Nope, you're right: It's pretty huge news.

     

     


    True. And Wall Street ignores it.

  • Reply 32 of 57
    aaronjaaronj Posts: 1,595member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by plovell View Post

     

    True. And Wall Street ignores it.


     

    Probably true.  But there's nothing I can do about that.  *shrug*

  • Reply 33 of 57
    retrogustoretrogusto Posts: 1,109member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by CanUHearMeNow View Post

     

    LOL... more nonsense by Dilger aka "corrections"

     

    Here is your daily dose of reality, sheep:

     

    Apple Inc (AAPL) First Quarter Performance a Disaster? Analyst Warns of Stock Crashing

     

    http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/543351/20140314/apple-inc-aapl-stock.htm

     

    "Apple Inc is on its way to a disastrous first quarter for Fiscal Year 2014 as analyst Brian Blair of Wedge Partners delivers the bad news about the company's Q1 performance. According to Mr Blair, blah blah blah."


    Here's a positive take on the exact same report from Brian Blair, "Why Apple Innovations Could Boost Stock 20%."

     

    Basically, I think the guy said that this quarter was probably nothing special, so investors with lofty expectations may be disappointed, but the rest of the year could be pretty good.

     

    http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2014/03/12/why-apple-innovations-could-boost-stock-20/

  • Reply 34 of 57
    hungoverhungover Posts: 603member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tooltalk View Post

     

     

    Yep, this is somewhat nonsensical.

     

    The same report goes on to say there are about 700M active smartphone users in China.  Of these, about 21.6% or 140+M are active iPhone. LOL!!   Apple hasn't sold that many iPhones in China -- so unless there is a huge secondary iPhone market in China we don't know about, this number is a complete bull. 




    I agree that the figures look very suspect.

     

    The 140+M includes ipads. Evans estimates the number of active iPhones in China at approximately 100m.

     

    This would suggest that 1 in 4 of all iphones made since 2007 are still active in China???

     

    I tend to take Evans' hobby analysis with a pinch of salt. 

  • Reply 35 of 57
    pk22901pk22901 Posts: 153member

    The stats are about SMARTphone mkt share, not CELL phone ms.

  • Reply 36 of 57

    You people really haven't been keeping track of Apple's share price, have you?  You need to realize that the stock market was on fire for all of 2013 and every tech stock on Wall Street was reaching new highs every other day.  Do you know what Apple did in 2013?  It sucked horribly.  It became the bottom feeder company of all tech stocks thanks to Tim Cook.  Tim Cook has doomed Apple to mediocrity.  No matter how many smartphones and iPads Apple sells or how much reserve cash Apple is holding, the company's value will continue to drop.  That makes Apple a truly doomed company.  Most of Wall Street truly believes Apple will fail due to loss of market share.  Wall Street believes that with loss of market share, comes loss of profits and Apple is basically living on borrowed time.  A blind man could randomly pick any stock on the market and come out with a better investment than Apple.

     

    Apple has every advantage over most of the companies on Wall Street and the stock continues to drop because the people running Apple don't know what the hell they're doing when it comes to finding growth markets.  Apple doesn't have to live and die by the iPhone.  Apple could buy into so many other revenue producing businesses that it would make Wall Street's head spin.  Instead, Apple just keeps sitting on the reserve cash like a mother hen sits on hard-boiled eggs and no egg ever hatches.  That's why Apple is doomed.  Apple keeps saying it's saving the reserve cash for a rainy day.  Rainy day?  It's already been raining for a year and a half for Apple shareholders.  Apple has no search engine and no cloud services despite sitting on $160 billion (yes, $160 billion).  A search engine and cloud services wouldn't even put a dent in Apple's cash reserve.  Apple is dooming itself by doing absolutely nothing to increase revenue.  You watch Apple's stock take a huge drop on this quarter's earning report and then tell me I didn't warn you.

  • Reply 37 of 57
    plovellplovell Posts: 824member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post

     

    That makes Apple a truly doomed company.  

     

    Most of Wall Street truly believes Apple will fail ...

     

    That's why Apple is doomed. 


    Two more rings for the death-knell counter. Ding dong.

     

    Oh - Wall Street doesn't understand Apple. Neither do you, it seems.

  • Reply 38 of 57
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post





    Except they do.




    No, they don't.  Do you see a Mercedes three-pointed star on that?  That's like claiming that the Jetta is a Lamborghini just because the same parent owns both.

  • Reply 39 of 57
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheOtherGeoff View Post

     

    The grey market is/was huge.   Scarcity in and of itself drives the bling aspect of the iPhone.


    That reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote about Ruggeri’s, a St. Louis restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.”

     

    There are huge numbers of iPhones on the streets of China because everyone wants them because of their scarcity.  That's funny.

  • Reply 40 of 57
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    No, they don't.  Do you see a Mercedes three-pointed star on that?  That's like claiming that the Jetta is a Lamborghini just because the same parent owns both.

    The branding doesn't change the fact that Mercedes Benz builds that car.
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