This just in from Steve “I just made $1.35 mil” Ballmer: Apple will lose the smartphone “war” just like it lost the OS war: “If you want to reach more than [the leading 30% smartphone share Nokia currently controls], you have to separate the hardware and software in the platform,” he said at an event at the Churchill Club in Santa Clara, Calif. earlier this week.
In other words, separate the hardware and the software and reap the rewards. Right?
Wrong. Because despite the fact that Microsoft has huge market share, it’s clear that Apple is not only more innovative as a company, but also makes more in spite of selling less. Apple’s market capitalization ($93+ billion) is a little less than half of Microsoft’s ($228+ billion), despite having a small market share in the OS, hardware, and mobile sectors.
As El Jobso put it himself a couple of years ago: “Apple’s market share is bigger than BMW’s or Mercedes’s or Porsche’s in the automotive market. What’s wrong with being BMW or Mercedes?”
What indeed?
You know what they say about BMW drivers.
The difference between a BMW and a porcupine is that the pricks are on the inside.
Why are childish comments like the one from "wesq" allowed?
There surely is nothing wrong with 30% market share, especially with more than 3 players. Low margin and high volume is but one business strategy.
Now if only I could think of a market-dominating product where the hardware, software, and principal source of content all came from the same company... I'm sure there's something like that. A product with >70% market share... Something that has become synonymous with the entire product category... Damn, it's just not coming to me.
Empty words. What can Microsoft point to that indicates that their mobile strategy is a winning strategy just like the PC world?
They can't sign exclusive contracts and squeeze out competition. They have no control over the carriers. They have to compete with similar devices sitting on the shelf.
And after being on the market for little over a year, the iPhone is rapidly gaining to eclipse the Windows Mobile OS market share worldwide. This after 5-6 years of Windows Mobile!
And if you take a look at the buying habits of the under 24 age group, the numbers are even scarier for Microsoft, even when you throw in PC's into the mix.
Ballmer is ignoring what all the trends are saying which is why if they do not change, will eventually stubborn themselves to irrelevance.
@Eduardo: I'm sorry if my comment was offensive, it was not intended that way. It was just something I've heard before that I thought might be amusing in this particular instance.
@wesq: Apology accepted. No harm-no foul. By the way I drive a BMW; so I'm not too keen on people making "BMW driver"-stereotypes.
I don't understand what actually mr balmer is advising Apple to do:
1. selling a sw-less iPhone, where the user may put her/his favorite OS (windoze mobile???)
2. stopping iPhone's production and limiting itself to sell a general-purpose cellular os
3. selling iPhones and cellular os as two separate products.
In any case, IMHO, the stricter hw-sw relationship that exists for these devices, due to the peculiar UI and the hw limits, makes the proposal downright silly, even if there weren't other reasons.
@wesq: (very OT, sorry!) I'm a fan of BMW, but I could agree with you for those who drive a BMW with automatic transmission :->.
The problem with being BMW or Mercedes is third-party support.
In computing, this means applications.
Whenever someone asks me why I would pay for an overpriced computer I ask them why would anyone pay for an overpriced Toyota ( Lexus ).
Balmer must be joking!!! Here is a guy that is running a major company which is dying a very slow death. They are living only on their Windows franchise, which, admittedly, is a huge money spinner for the moment. When other OS's, eg Linux and, yes, even the Mac, eat substantially into their market share, their percentage of the total OS market will drop like a stone. This is because they are the least innovative software company on the planet. Also, they are one of the most unethical companies on earth, luring other companies into a form of partnership only to stab them in the back, witness the Play-for-Sure deal with many partners which they dumped when they introduced the Zune. The same happened to IBM with their OS2 platform which was a partnership between MS and IBM. If Apple even remotely started to look like MS, I would dump the platform in a heartbeat.
Microsoft should bring back Microsoft Bob, but use Balmer and call it Microsft Steve. Then he can do the Monkey Dance on very windows PC all the time.
@Eduardo What kind? My dad drives a 325i and it's a sweet ride.
hmmm. last time i attended marketing 101, i heard something about Profit being a bit more critical than MarketShare.
i believe i will continue to design web sites on my BMW Book Pro ...