Forgive the title but Apple’s been doomed so many times now the Macalope’s having a hard time coming up with new ways to say it. It must be hard to be Apple when even your successes… spell your doom!
Writing for the Montreal Gazette, Jason Magder describes ”Why iPad success could doom both Microsoft and Apple” (tip o’ the antlers to John Kordyback)
Which is kind of a neat trick. “Why being incredibly successful and making a metric crapton of cash… COULD MEAN DOOM!” The Macalope thinks what he really means is “milder success than it previously experienced”. That doesn’t make for headlines, though.
I recently spoke to a company founder who said, if you think something is good enough, you have failed.
Just any company founder or an Apple company founder? Does his name rhyme with “Greg Joswiak”? By which the Macalope means “Was it Steve Wozniak”? AKA, the perpetual negative Apple quote machine?
In the meantime, it has taken a while, but the competition has finally caught up to Apple, and the iPad is now bleeding market share down to 28.3 per cent from 47.2 per cent at this time last year.
Not market share! It’s the 18th most meaningful share!
The reason for the decrease in market share doesn’t seem to be innovation on the part of competitors…
Well, selling tablets at cost is a kind of innovation. Just not a very clever one.
…but rather a lack of innovation on the part of Apple, and the ability for other providers to supply something similar for cheaper.
What part of changes in seasonality due to a shift in product cycles don’t you understand?
The latest sales figures show that while Apple may be in trouble, Microsoft’s Surface gamble was a disaster of epic proportions, as the company’s share of the tablet market is only five per cent, up from one per cent a year ago.
Let’s also remember that while Android tablets may have more market share, none of them other than Samsung have been shown to be making any money in mobile. And even they didn’t have a great quarter.
What does the iPad have to do with this?
Yeah, get to the point, already!
While Apple may have won the opening salvo of what it dubbed the Post-PC era, it now appears to be struggling to come up with a second act.
So, your argument is that the first act was so awesome it makes it hard to follow? You do know that doesn’t take away from the success of the first act, right?
Phone and tablet makers have caught up to the company’s innovation, and in the case of Samsung, surpassed it.
Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence!
Yet Apple appears to be looking at getting into the crowded connected TV market…
Uh, the company is already in it. And remember what happened when they got into the crowded cell phone market?
…rather than making some major innovation in tablets or phones.
Yes! That’s what they do! They reinvent a market, take the high end and innovate evolutionarily while looking for other markets to remake. That part isn’t easy, it takes a few years.
Apparently asking that pundits understand that is too much to expect.