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On the iPhone and Apple's Meteoric Rise To the Top

Posted by Soulskill on from the seems-to-have-worked-out-well-for-them dept.

zacharye writes "Friday marks five years since the world first got its hands on a smartphone that would turn the industry on its head. In five short years, Apple went from the ground floor to being the most profitable company in the smartphone business by a staggering margin. Apple and Samsung — two companies that weren't even on the smartphone industry's map a few years ago — are now the only two major global vendors making money, and the split was estimated at 80/20 in Apple's favor last quarter. That's 80% of smartphone industry profits in less than five years with just five different smartphone models under its belt during that span."

17 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. No surprise. by cpu6502 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Steve Jobs and his team made a damn fine piece of technology: A screen large enough for web-surfing & an easy-to-use touch interface. Plus people were already thrilled with the best-selling iPod, so stepping up to an iPhone was a natural next step.

    In other news: I was just reading this morning that phone sales are down for everyone (except Apple apparently). Overall retail sales in the EU have dropped 7%. Sounds like we're headed for great recession part 2. :-|

    --
    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    1. Re:No surprise. by quacking+duck · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The iPhone and the LG prada were the natural progression (evolution) of phones, neither one revolutionary in their appearance or function.

      Natural progression of phone *hardware* and basic appearance.

      But in the "function" department, the iPhone simply blew the Prada away.

      Watch a video review of the Prada. It still used T9 input. It had tiny scroll bars that the reviewer could barely get to work. The appsIt was basically a candybar phone interface with touchscreen over where the physical buttons would be. The browser was so bad the only reviews I found that mentioned it at all, said it was terrible.

      In short, the only reason the Prada is remembered at all is because they got a full-size cap-touchscreen phone out first (announcement by 1 month; actual release by 2 or 3).

  2. Re:Sports Announcer Voice. by the_humeister · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You're thinking of Eric Clapton.

  3. five models by blackraven14250 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    with just five different smartphone models under its belt during that span."

    That's a significant part of the reason for it, right there.

    1. Re:five models by rtfa-troll · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Right; 100%. With an iPhone there is a dead simple choice; I'm rich / prioritize this - take the latest model, pay a reasonable amount. Poor / sensible - take the older one still on sale. All of them are still delivering a platform on which most of the features ("apps") will work except where tied to some very specific new feature (e.g. siri to voice recognition). If you want to see how much other phone companies don't get this, look only at the wannabe competitors who are releasing new phones unable to run skype where previous models have been able to. Even Android is barely succeeding at getting this even with Google continually and determinedly pushing it.

      The real truth is that the brilliance of Apple was in sacrificing market share for the ability to make decisions independent of the mobile operators. This meant that there was only one company (Apple its self) putting it's own interests above the consumers and even that company is pretty much aware of the danger and so only does it "tastefully".

      This is what Microsoft is fighting for with Skype - the ability to bypass the mobile operators and make them irrelevant. I don't think they will succeed, but once the mobile operators realise the risk I think it will make Apple and Google's bargaining power much larger.

      --
      =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
    2. Re:five models by swb · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's a huge reason. The model simplicity (which is probably closer to 2 models when you factor in that the 3 models and 4 models share the basic case/form factor) is a huge win for consumers because it makes it easier for Apple to continue to support them with iOS updates AND for consumers to own them because they need to buy fewer accessories (my ProClip car holder still works with my 4s as it did with my 3gs).

      It's also simpler for consumers to wrap their mind around -- I wouldn't know what fucking Android phone to buy if you put a gun to my head. There's too many and too many from even one maker, and they seem (at least from the marketing background noise) to come out with new ones continuously.

  4. Meteoric? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wouldn't that mean it came hurling down to earth and usually burned to nothing in the atmosphere?

  5. Will it continue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder if this will continue for Apple.

    iOS 6 is a yawner. Yes, what we need -- more facebook integration. Already, there is a backlash against FB. The latest Android announcement had some cool items in it including another method of protecting against piracy that does not depend on if a device is not rooted.

    The Retina Display Macbook Pro has a cool screen, but cannot be repaired or upgraded.

    Mountain Lion?

    Jobs's RDF is gone.

    What Apple needs to do is start figuring out how to get themselves enterprise-friendly without losing their consumer market. Enterprises buy stuff in such large chunks that a few good contracts are a lot better than lines around the building of hipsters.

    First, redo the Mac Pro. Make a chassis that works like a tower, but can have a rack drawer attached so it can be slammed into a standard enclosure. Offer not just 8Gbs FC cards, but NICs with enough packet offloading power so FCoE is workable.

    Second, make something like BES but for managing iPhones. Yes, Exchange can do a lot, but having a dedicated policy management server that can handle data transmissions, perhaps even backups of phone devices would bring a lot of revenue.

    Third, the ARM processor supports worlds. In this day of BYOD, offer iPhones and iPads with a "work" partition and a "home" partition. That way, the employee only needs to type in the long password when accessing the "work" side, and the Exchange erase only blows that out. It also allows for apps to only see a subset of data, so the FB app isn't able to access work contacts.

    Fourth, make an antipiracy mechanism similar to Google's LVL or new encryption mechanism in Jelly Bean. That way, apps don't have to rely on the fact a device is not jailbroken. As an added bonus, more money can be spent on features, not anti-jailbreak BS.

    Fifth, make a business friendly Mac desktop that can push the Dells and Compaqs out of the offices. Take an iMac, toss the camera and mic, and sell that as a business PC with service plans to follow. Lots of cash there to be made, as most companies would switch to Macs if they could, only for the artistic value of the machines.

    1. Re:Will it continue? by whisper_jeff · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is such a glorious example of how Slashdot readers just don't get it sometimes. Let's see:

      Yes, what we need -- more facebook integration.

      Yes. There are literally 100's of millions of Facebook users and I suspect they will happily take more Facebook integration with their phone. Just because you (or many Slashdotters) hate Facebook doesn't mean that the vast (VAST) majority of people out there also hate it.

      What Apple needs to do is start figuring out how to get themselves enterprise-friendly without losing their consumer market. Enterprises buy stuff in such large chunks that a few good contracts are a lot better than lines around the building of hipsters.

      Absolutely right. Except the iPhone is, by a wide margin, the most successful smartphone on the market making Apple the most successful company in the world while RIM, with it's focus on enterprise, is nearly dead. So maybe not so right after all.

      Seriously, Slashdotters have such a strong sense of "I know how to do it right and they clearly don't so let me spell it out for you..." Um, Apple is _THE_ most successful company on the planet, by a wide margin. They have figured out how to do it. Perhaps your roadmap to success isn't quite as good as you think it is given that your roadmap to success sounds a HELL of a lot like "focus on enterprise like RIM". You know, RIM, the company that is desperately cutting overhead in an effort to save their company from utter ruin because that's where they're headed.

      Look, Apple isn't perfect and there are things that they can do better in various ways but I think they've proven, beyond any possible shadow of a doubt, that their approach works a hell of a lot better than your suggested approach. Focusing on consumers is a roadmap to success. Getting consumers behind your product gets your product into businesses. They've proven this. Why Slashdotters cannot see this is a mystery to me.

    2. Re:Will it continue? by stewbacca · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What Apple needs to do is start figuring out how to get themselves enterprise-friendly without losing their consumer market.

      In engineering, EVERYTHING is about tradeoffs. You simply can't have a good enterprise experience AND a good consumer experience, so Apple (thankfully for me as a consumer) has leaned towards consumer. Sure there are some positive aspects of the consumer brand that could be incorporated into the enterprise environment, but for the most part, the two are mutually exclusive. This is why, in my opinion, Windows + x86 sucks as a consumer product. The money Microsoft makes from businesses is way more than their measly $300 here and there for Windows upgrades and Microsoft Office for the few dolts who haven't figured out you can be quite productive with a computer that uses neither.

      A good example would be the continuum of security vs. usability. Somebody who thinks security is important, probably devalues usability, because you can't really have both.

  6. Re:Sports Announcer Voice. by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Two cellphone manufacturers enter!

    RIM takes one on the chin, and is down for the count!

    --
    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  7. Re:Stop Saying "Meteoric"!! by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry, but it seems "meteoric rise" has been used a lot lately and it's almost as if people are being tested to see how stupid they are.

    Actually, it's a test of how quickly some people jump to erroneous conclusions without bothering to check if there is a reasonable explanation they simply don't know about. We could call it the "true knowledge test for males between the ages of 15 and 30".

    The phrase "meteoric rise" has been in use at least since 1865 - and, given the context, it makes perfect sense.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  8. Your side is obvious by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Only Apple Haters care about Steve Jobs.

    The rest of us just like functional devices.

    The rest of us realize Jobs didn't really matter, except that he had a talent for creating teams with amazing people.

    Not to belittle that talent, but since his team is the reason Apple succeeds Apple will do fine without him.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  9. It is all marketing by kurt555gs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am a phone geek. The cell phone that I like the best. Actually the best cell phone ever made, in my opinion is the Nokia N9. Now dead, no longer made, it's corpse used to make shitty Lumia's. It could have been the 3rd leg in the cell phone triad.

    But, it isn't about technology. The people that buy cell phones aren't the real customers, but the companies that suck user information and sell it.

    The Nokia N9 is like the 2002 BMW E39 M5. the last of the great road cars where you could actually shift it, and trurning off the traction control really did just that.

    So, long Nokia. The N9 could have been a stellar hit.

    --
    * Carthago Delenda Est *
  10. Re:Sports Announcer Voice. by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Would Nietzsche have been an Apple user?

    --
    "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
  11. iOS6 is a renaissance by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    iOS 6 is a yawner

    Spoken like someone totally ignorant of details, or lacking in vision...

    iOS6 has such major, important updates for developers that going forward I will go with iOS6 support only as soon as it comes out, with no backwards support.

    Finally developers will be able to display anything on the built in maps framework, without any of the limits imposed by GOOGLE on how you can use maps.

    Also developers will be able to create regionally focused mapping applications that users can buy in the map itself! Android does not have nearly as open and extensible built in third-party map helper support - only what Google chooses to provide. Yes you can buy other mapping apps but you have to find them yourself, and determine if they will work where you are.

    Also iOS6 has an really advanced constrait based layout engine that goes way beyond a springs/struts model, or Android's Relative layout model. It makes support for proper internationalization trivial.

    Apple never needed Jobs mythical RDF, just great products... and Apple is continuing to provide that for users.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  12. Re:Daft Punk, Not Kanye by PerfectionLost · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who actually sampled http://www.last.fm/music/Edwin+Birdsong heavily for the song...