Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Apple is a hardware company, but…


As I see numbers posted for Mobile OS market share, Android numbers keep going up.  Apple is still a distant second place and the argument by Apple fans is that Apple is a hardware company.  If that is true (and we know it is), then I would be very concerned as an Apple supporter.  The operating system shipping on their hardware isn't wooing fans and frankly, the stale hardware designs aren't either.   

I am tired of hearing the excuses that Apple is not selling operating systems.  Let's face it, they are.  They have to sell their OS because they refuse to let anyone else do anything with their hardware.  I can buy a Samsung Galaxy SIII and put anything I want on it.  Samsung won't support it but they don't stop me from doing it and there is a community around alternate OSes that could support it.  Ubuntu or WebOS may actually run on it.  If I buy an iPhone 5 it is running IOS.  There is no intention of it running anything else.  Your options for alternate OSes for Apple hardware is nonexistent. Yes, you can jailbreak it but that is still running a variant of IOS.

Now I know that there are hundreds of manufacturers selling Android so the percentage of sales is slimmer for most hardware companies outside of Samsung, HTC and maybe Motorola.  But the fact remains that Apple's hardware excuse isn't selling as many hardware devices as they once did. And they certainly are not winning fans over with the included OS. No matter how you slice it, Apple is not succeeding at its core market (puns intended).  Android hardware makers like Samsung are selling more hardware than the self-proclaimed true hardware company. Even some Apple faithful have recently jumped ship to Android.  Should Apple be worried? Will IOS7 turn that around? Thoughts?

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