You simply can't ignore Android, the biggest mobile OS and its doesn't get starved if iOS developers earn 30% more.
I think about a bold move like buying Verizon or so.
But in my opinion Apple is losing by simple being Apple.
They can't keep up with the speed of Google. They spent their money left and right and Apple is sitting on it's cash. Why? They even paid out a dividend, that was the sign that they have no big plan. What was one of the first actions of Tim Cook.
Android being the "biggest mobile OS" is like QNX being the biggest embedded OS. If you have 80% market share but 90% of your users don't care about being a phonetechnoweeniegeek, then it's irrelevant.
The stat we should be tracking is: out of people who actually use their phones (a horrible name for these things now anyway) as computers, which percentage of those people are using which device? We constantly see stats of "Android has 80% market share! But--now keep this between just you and me--iOS makes up 80% of mobile web traffic."
Actually no, Android now wins in large parts of Europe and Asia by web traffic, iOS still slightly ahead in the US and only massively ahead in some outliers like Switzerland. One thing is sure, you can't ignore Android anymore.
I wonder how portion of Android users care about their platform.
Given the cheapness of some of these phones, would not surprise me if many users had low interest in their devices beyond the phone and basic web/app use.
Looking at the user boards and among my circles, many Android user actually seem to care more about their platform - for better or worse. Apple's continuing "thermo nuclear war* seems to spawn a strong anti reaction. Who'd have thought. I just hope enough Apple exes see this, too.
Buying Verizon would be hard to get past the government. See how difficult it was for AT&T to buy Alltel (they had to give a not-insignificant part of it to Verizon to play fair).
One telecom purchasing another is a completely different beast with a different kind of history than a hardware/operating system company purchasing a telecom.
It was difficult for AT&T to purchase Alltel because after the breakup of Ma Bell, the baby bells have been eating each other and consolidating into the current Big Three (ATT, Tmobile, Verizon). The AT&T purchase of Alltel was seen as a baby bell further consolidating the wireless marketplace.
Its a global game not a US one. The amount of money to buy global operators is large. Vodafone is 125bn dollars and as a global operator is just the first on the list. Apple and Google can't just buy global mobile.
True, but you can expand that. It is a long term strategy.
They are sitting on 120B that is just in some hedge funds anyway, why not do something with it that has a competitive advantage. They just have no plan....
Give this money Amazon or Google they would know what to do with it. That's the reason i dislike Apple. They don't have a mayor purpose any more. If there is no company vision, then at least do something that improves everyone's live and gives this company another shot. In the worst case Apple loses the phone wars and is the biggest mobile operator in the world. Not even that of a risky move, mobile operators have a pretty solid business model.
I think it will not matter as much which company it is, as that it is a cell phone company. Having one corporation in charge of both the device and the service is something that will hurt the consumers in the long run I believe.
Normally I'd agree, but US carriers have done an exceptional job of crippling mobile computing over the last decade, and just about anything would be an improvement. If one or more of Apple, Google, or Microsoft were to buy a carrier and pledge to run it as a dumb pipe, that would be great for everyone. Well, except the incumbents who would be introduced to real competition.
>You simply can't ignore Android, the biggest mobile OS and its doesn't get starved if iOS developers earn 30% more.
You really can. It's only "biggest" in sales, but not all those sales are to people buying apps and living the "online" life. In most interviews/surveys developers say that the make little money on Android sales compared to iOS, and that they prefer ad-supported apps so that at least can make a buck with free (which only was for high volume apps).
On the other side, there are tons of iOS only apps and games, that ignore Android altogether, including very successful examples.
I think about a bold move like buying Verizon or so.
But in my opinion Apple is losing by simple being Apple. They can't keep up with the speed of Google. They spent their money left and right and Apple is sitting on it's cash. Why? They even paid out a dividend, that was the sign that they have no big plan. What was one of the first actions of Tim Cook.