Why is marketshare such a big deal?
Seriously. If I'm a phone vendor who wishes to address some (partial) segment of the available phone market, and I can sell all the phones I can produce into that segment, why does it matter if that means I have 100%, 50%, 10% of the overall market?
Apple sells high-end and mid-high gear. It does not address the low-end and low-mid markets. So it will never own the marketshare that the other vendors crave.
So if Apple is selling every iPhone it produces, who gives a godd@mn what that means in terms of marketshare?
Some days it seems to me that the "Mine is bigger than yours is" mentality so common among sales people has corrupted our thinking to the point where we think, not only that "more is better", but "enough is insufficient".
If Apple were losing money and their stock price was tanking and nobody was buying their products, that's a different story. But in fact they are extremely successful.
It seems to me we've lost our vision of what "business success" means.
Because smart phones are miniature computers, so market share helps determine how many software vendors will want to make software for the platform, which in turn helps determine how much software is available, which helps drive desirability, which then perpetuates market share.
It’s just like the rest of the software business. If you’re going to make a widget, but you only have the resources to develop and test for one platform you need to pick wisely. And unless that widget targets a group that’s skewed from the norm your best bet is probably to aim for the biggest market share.
Sour grapes syndrome eh?
Exactly what segment you talking about here, dude?
Smartphones are smartphones. Both Androids and iPhones are selling to the same smartphone segment of the cell phone market, only Androids are busy clobbering the iPhones in sales even as we speak. Hey, I don't recall any of the Applebots coming up with this "market share doesn't matter" crap back a few months ago when the iPhone was clobbering Androids. In fact, Steve Jobs used to precede every speech of his with the fast rising market share figures for the iPhones.
And what is this talk about “and I can sell all the phones I can produce”?
The factories in China can only produce a limited number of iPhones? Since when?
Aren't the same Chinese contract manufacturers making both the iPhones and the Android? And can't they make as many iPhones as Apple could possible ever want even if Apple were selling a 100 million iPhones a month(which they are not of course)?
“It seems to me we've lost our vision of what “business success” means”
Naaaaah.
Its always been about bigger market share and ultimately bigger revenues and profits. That is why Toyota overtook Ford and GM in worldwide market share and then proceeded to overtake GM and Ford in revenues and sales as well..and that is why Microsoft has been making more profits than Apple does for decades..because Windows PC’s sell vastly more units than Macs