The mainstream media had a field day last week when market research firm IDC revealed that Apple’s iPad market share had fallen slightly, while its competitors were on the rise. While organizations like the Wall Street Journal seemed to revel in the news, the stories were a bit misleading.
Apple’s iPad market share did in fact fall to 43.6 percent from 46.4 percent for the previous quarter. While the WSJ seems to think that “strong competition” from Samsung and other name-brand competitors lead to the iPad decrease, I believe it was something much simpler.
The fact is, for a while, the iPad was the only game in town — it had all the market share, because there were no competitors. As companies like Samsung copied Apple’s designs and put out cheaper, competing products, people started to buy them.
It doesn’t matter what company you look at — if you have the only product on the market and then suddenly have competitors, your market share is going to fall.
Let’s look at the car industry as an example. If Mercedes has the only car on the market, anyone that buys a car will own a Mercedes. They will, of course, have all of the market share.
However, when Hyundai releases a car, some people will buy that automobile. Mercedes market share will decrease over time as more manufacturers make cars.
That’s essentially what’s happening to Apple.
That doesn’t mean that Apple is selling fewer iPads. Despite the best efforts of the WSJ and other news organizations to convince you otherwise, Apple’s tablet business is not in trouble.
Looking at Apple’s last quarterly results reported on January 23, 2013, the company sold a record 22.9 million iPads, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter. That’s a hefty increase in iPad sales year-over-year.
There’s another thing to look at with the IDC report. While people have made a big deal out of Samsung being in second place and gaining on Apple, the largest market share category behind Apple is actually “Other.”
In fact, consider this — the market share from all of the other tablet makers combined is only 34.3 percent, still well behind Apple’s 43.6 percent. They would be Samsung (15.1%), Amazon (11.5%), Asus (5.8%) and Barnes & Noble (1.9%).
The more I look at the stories about Apple in mainstream media, the more I wonder about the news organization’s agenda.
A New Jersey Superior Court judge recently ordered a blogger to defend her status as a journalist and explain why the state’s shield law applies to her in order to avoid revealing the names of government officials she accused of wrongdoing.
What an incredible story told by Lex Friedman. Especially this part when Lex was asking the guy at the booth some questions:
“I’m done talking to you,” he said, as he moved to position himself directly in front of my face. His expression had gone from brusque to combative. “Did you hear me? I’m done talking to you.”
I’ll tell you what — that wouldn’t have ended the way he anticipated if he did that to me.
“Dell has a very tough road ahead. The company faces an extended period of uncertainty and transition that will not be good for its customers. And with a significant debt load, Dell’s ability to invest in new products and services will be extremely limited. Leveraged buyouts tend to leave existing customers and innovation at the curb. We believe Dell’s customers will now be eager to explore alternatives, and HP plans to take full advantage of that opportunity.”
Dell Inc. today announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement under which Michael Dell, Dell’s Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, in partnership with global technology investment firm Silver Lake, will acquire Dell.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dell stockholders will receive $13.65 in cash for each share of Dell common stock they hold, in a transaction valued at approximately $24.4 billion.
Oh, how ironic. Dell isn’t going out of business, though, just going private.
Executive buy-in is a prerequisite for success, so make sure that it’s well understood that even though everyone gets a voice, not everyone gets to decide.
That may very well be the most difficult part for a lot of PMs.
According to the independent website analytics company StatCounter, Apple had a nice 25.86 percent of mobile Internet usage in January 2013. Although that was a decline of 2.81 percent compared to the same month in 2012, Nokia’s share in the same period fell from 37.67 percent to 22.15 percent, a significant decline.
The best way to honor someone who has said something smart and useful is to say something back that is smart and useful. The other way to honor them is to go do something with what you learned.
If you’re not a hockey fan, you may not know the red light’s iconic flashing, spinning glow and horn sound that accompany every goal.
The Budweiser Red Light works by connecting to your Wi-Fi network. After configuring the device with an Android or iPhone app to tell it what teams you are rooting for, it sits sleeping in your rec room. When a game is on, it wakes up and starts listening over the network for a score. When the puck goes in the net, the light goes crazy.
“We are not joking: It’s real, it works and you can buy it,” says the Budweiser Canada homepage.
The tulip has come to be a loved symbol of the Netherlands. Many tourists visit the country just to see the bright coloured flower and the astonishing view over the bulb fields. The season begins in March with crocuses, followed by the daffodil and the yellow narcissi.
This is a great photographic example of the idea of taking something we are familiar with and looking at it from different angle.
The minimalist web store has long since expanded to include more than just cables; today, it’s best described as an accessory shop. But in January, the company announced that it was taking a broad step into a new market: It was going to start selling big-ticket electronics under the Monoprice name.
I’ve sworn by Monoprice for years and recommend them anytime anyone asks me where to get cheap cables. Happy to see them expand their product line into electronics to give other e-tailers a run for the money.
I made fun of BlackBerry and its co-CEOs for quite some time. While I had good reason to do it, I wasn’t against a BlackBerry comeback. However, with the launch behind us, I don’t think they did enough to get themselves off the ropes.
As I said on Amplified last week, BlackBerry needed a stellar launch — both the software and hardware, as well as any new features, had to be blockbuster. They weren’t.
The company changed its name from RIM to BlackBerry, but so what? Its core business was always the BlackBerry, so the change doesn’t signify any major shift in thinking. When Apple changed its name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. there was a clear shift from just computers to consumer electronic devices, like the iPhone and iPad.
BlackBerry also announced that Alicia Keys would be the new Global Creative Director. A celebrity endorsement is not what people want, they want a better product.
The new BlackBerry received an average response from media, some early reviews were just bad.
BlackBerry needed to give users a reason to switch back from the iPhone or Samsung product they currently own — they didn’t do that. At most, they may have caught up to where everyone else already is, but they needed to do more if they planned to get back all of those customers.
Microsoft Corp is expected to invest around $2 billion in the deal, while private equity firm Silver Lake is expected to put in about $1 billion, the source said. Michael Dell is expected to roll over his roughly 16 percent stake and put in some of his own money so he has control of the company, the source added.
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