Similar to computers, they have lost the point of what makes a phone a good sell. Having cheaper product lines makes all the difference. Nowadays, the iPhone sits around as the most expensive phone. You can easily get cheaper phones that take care of the neccessary functions without the high price tag or the top notch system specs. That’s the problem with Apple, they seem to sell based on high system specification numbers, where a lot of people want something that can do the job, for a lower price, but not neccessarily the most powerful system out there either. All I have, for instance, is a cheap Android phone that can get the same functions as an iphone, and while it doesn’t have the fancy 64GB of storage space that the iPhone does, it does what I need to accomplish, with efficiency.
Nowadays, Apple has gone on the wrong path businesswise, they had a little flirt with the less luxurious with their White Macbook, which they discontinued in 2010, real shame, because it was an option that wasn’t as expensive as the Pro In order to sell to a wider customer base, you need the less expensive options, you also need to be creative with the features of the product. If Apple can’t do that, this little news isn’t going to matter much in the long run.
That's been Apple's M.O. since the beginning, and it's worked for them.
Android continues to take more market share beating Apple in many many areas. Android has more market share than Apple.
Morpheus, you’re a bit off about Apple having the high specs. Samsung outshines them in most every feature. And Nokia has hands down the best camera capability (there’s not even a question there).
Apple got ahead when Jobs was at the helm. They have continued to grow but not at a rate that breaks away from the pack; in fact they are lagging Android.
Apple nearly went bankrupt in the 1990s because they thought they would be like the ‘Mercedes’ of computers. The went from the major player in the space to about 5% of the market. And the corporate execs dumped Jobs which took away Apples’s edge in innovation. Microsoft nearly killed them off until Lawrence Tribe was unleashed by Clinton to try and break up Microsoft on grounds of Anti-Trust laws. And Clinton was following instructions from Larry Ellison whose baby was Netscape. Ellison made his billions selling the CIA his relational database and he hated playing second fiddle to Microsoft. Apple was nearly dead so they didn’t matter.
Then Apple near death brought Jobs back and he immediately set about making Apple the one to follow. Now Apple has lost Jobs and their lead is not commanding; now it’s no longer even a lead. It’s growing sales but at a slower pace than others meaning it’s losing market share relative to the spectacular growth of its competitors.
I think Apple repeats the 1990s cycle as Android and Nokia gain more ground. Apple is not the biggest player in the space but they act like they are.
But you are spot on that price for value trumps everything else. That has what made Android a star and also what has made Nokia more attractive than Apple.