Apple Devices To Reach Parity With Windows PCs In 2014 511
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Horace Dediu writes at Aymco that in 2013 there were 18.8 times more Windows PCs sold than Macs, a reduction in the Windows advantage from about 19.8x in 2012. But the bigger story is how Apple's mobile platform including iOS devices has nearly reached the sales volume of Windows. In 2013 there were only 1.18 more Windows PCs than Apple devices sold. Odds are that in 2014 Apple and Windows will be at parity. Dediu says that the Windows advantage itself came from the way computing was purchased in the period of its ascent in the 1980s and 1990s 'when computing platform decisions were made first by companies then by developers and later by individuals who took their cues from what standards were already established. As these decisions created network effects, the cycle repeated and the majority platform strengthened.' There was concentration in decision making in the 80s so a platform could win by convincing 500 individuals who had the authority (as CIOs) to impose through fiat a standard on the centers of gravity of purchasing power. Today, with mobile products there are billions of decision makers. and the decision making process for buying computers, which began with large companies IT departments making decisions with multi-year horizons, has changed to billions of individuals making decisions with no horizons. Companies have become the laggards and individuals the early adopters of technology. 'Ultimately, it was the removal of the intermediary between buyer and beneficiary which dissolved Microsoft's power over the purchase decision,' concludes Dediu. 'The computer has become personal not just in the sense of how it's used but in the sense of how it's owned.' Finally, all the above is almost moot, given the rise of Android, something that is beating both Cupertino and Redmond alike."
Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are tons of PC's in any corporation and home.
The difference is they run XP still and are 8 years old and are therefore not counted. I do not believe there is an IPAD for every corporate employee.
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Informative)
At 3:1 or 4:1 though, Android will handle that by the end of this year.
Android may have already passed Windows installed base. Gartner estimates there were 1.63 billion Windows PCs in the world at the end of 2013, and that around 850 million Android devices sold in the same year. Android sales in 2012 were just under 800 milion, up about 35% from 2011.
The global average lifespan of a moble device is hard to find, but most estimates put it at around 22-25 months. Adding the numbers suggests Android has already passed Windows, or at the very least achieved parity with it.
I'm not sure why we're discussing Apple in this context at all. I guess we just like also-rans here...
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Insightful)
The interesting thing about Android is the amount of money involved. E.g. in the UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Mobile-Phones-Smartphones/zgbs/electronics/356496011 [amazon.co.uk]
Top selling phones seem to be between £158 (Samsung S3 mini) to £369 (Samsung S4). Now the lifetime is 24 months. So people spend £10 per month to keep their smartphone up to date. Most people don't do this explicitly, rather their telco sells them a plan for much more than £10 a month and gives them a 'free' upgrade every so often as a sweetener.
Now for PCs
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Laptops/zgbs/computers/429886031/ref=zg_bs_nav_computers_1_computers [amazon.co.uk]
Prices seem to be £300-400. On the other hand I bet the replacement time is longer. Many people mention 5 years. That's £5 or so a month. So they'd need to spend significantly more on laptops to get to the level of cash they spend on phones.
So it's plausible that people spend more money on keeping their smartphone up to date than their PC.
In fact that's quite plausible. Most people seem to have horrible, sluggish laptops but the very latest smartphone.
Of course if they bought one of these every five years it would work out differently
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-13-inch-MacBook-2-5GHz-Graphics/dp/B008BEYEL8/ref=zg_bs_429886031_6 [amazon.co.uk]
#6 on the best seller list and £855. So that would be £14 per month assuming you replace it every five years. Incidentally this is one of the reasons why Mac OS taking over from Windows is not a good thing. Most people could get save money by buying one of the vast number of Windows machines compared to buying one of Apple's limited selection of admittedly very high quality machines. A small selection of high end machines means you probably need to spend extra cash to get all the features you need because of the cheapest machine lacks a few.
Of course Microsoft are doing their best to fuck up Windows, so it's not that surprising that people are jumping ship for Mac OS. Windows OEMs must be pretty pissed off at this.
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not sure why we're discussing Apple in this context at all. I guess we just like also-rans here...
Because Apple is the choice of the cool crowd ... and geeks secretly love the cool crowd and want to be in it.
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Jeans and a shirt is a good analogy. It's comfortable and it just works. I'm almost middle aged and I wear jeans and a shirt because that's what I've always worn outside of work, not to look young and cool. It's basically the same reason I use an iPhone. It just works, reliably. It seems the Android guys are continually worried about OS upgrades, shiny new phone models, and what Apple is or isn't doing. iPhone users meanwhile are just using their phones.
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's only Apple fans on Slashdot who go on endlessly about updates, and in fact Android users get most updates via apps rather than OS version number bumps.
In actual fact if that's what you care about your best bet is a Nexus phone or Play edition. You get prompt updates from Google, and crucially they stop doing OS updates when your device is no longer fast enough to run them. From the on you get feature updates via apps. Unlike the iPhone you don't have your device made unusable slow after a few years to encourage you to upgrade.
Since Nexus devices are so much cheaper you can buy the latest one more often too, so you get a hardware update as well as software.
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:4, Interesting)
Accept if the lifespan is 22-25 months those 800M units in 2012 have all broke and a big part of the 850M 2013 sales would have been replacements. No doubt at some point Android or iOS will pass Windows but I don't think that will mean that people will stop working with windows devices. They'll just have a tablet, a cellphone or two etc that are running something else.
What annoys me most about this trend is the applification of everything. I don't need "an app for that". I need an app for that, and that and that. I use Office because I can't be bothered giving the free options a try every couple years to see if they've caught up (and I can be sure that what I learn to do at home will work at work vs learn Open Office tricks then relearn the same thing on a different platform). The problem is the trend of very small task apps making you have dozens of applications all for one particular piece of your organizational/communication puzzle. All slightly different UI choices, storing data in different proprietary formats, generally not communicating to one another well etc. I don't want to be bothered finding all the sub parts of a particular problem then investigating apps that fit that niche (and even worse since the app developers might have partitioned the domain differently than my desired workflow). Give me a suite that does a large subset of my problem. You probably won't see that on iOS or Android any time soon.
It is also a world where you are either expected to give away your app or make such small money that 90% of people can't live off of their development work for apps alone (saw a talk recently that estimated something like the average iOS app makes $8500/yr, that is great if I can pound that out in a month but not enough for me to bother continued support other than because I really dig the project). Not to mention the distribution is hugely scewed by the few huge successes that the median developer is making $1000.
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple is to Betamax as Android is to VHS.
Interesting comparison, depending on what you mean by it. As someone there at the time, I think it is a myth that Betamax was a better product. It had somewhat better image quality, yes. But a video recorder that couldn't tape a full movie without you returning home from your dinner to turn the tape before leaving again is not a superior home video technology. Depending on whether you are positive or negative to Apple, this could be interpreted as "typical Apple, you are using it wrong" or very unlike the user-friendly Apple user experience.
Another reason VHS won is more directly similar to Apple vs Android. VHS won because it was an open standard a myriad of manufactors freely adopted, Betamax wasn't - it was controlled and licensed at significant cost. Because of this obvious stronger consumer appeal, they got the content owners betting on them, including porn (another myth).
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I think Apple has done a pretty good job of avoiding most of the pitfalls of Betamax, though.
There's a lot of software for iOS devices, whereas Betamax had a prerecorded content deficit that definitely helped VHS gain market share.
It's also not easy map the "recording time" advantage to any specific deficiency in iOS hardware. About the closest you could come would be saying that some Android phones have bigger displays, but that's not a deficiency of all iOS devices if you include iPads and its not clear
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:4, Insightful)
Most Android devices allow you to expand the storage via SD or USB. With iOS devices you get what you get. That's not a perfect analogy to recording time, but it's a serious drawback IMO.
Re: Units sold or already out? (Score:4, Interesting)
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The cost is also what, 1/3 as much for the Nexus versus IPhone?
Nexus 5 from $349 According to Google site
IPhone 5C No Contract - 16 gb $549.
I see best buy has unlocked Nexus 5's for 499.
Been trying to work 1/3rd the price out of that, no luck.
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:4, Insightful)
The beauty of a free market is that there isn't "the consumer".
This isn't some centrally planned economy we're talking about. Everyone is free to participate. No one is going to leave money on the table if they are able. Every niche will be pandered too.
There will be someone to cater to all of the choices you try to sneer at.
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Interesting)
With respect to VHS being 'open', that wasn't the case either. I'm pretty certain that every VHS recorder sold included a license back to JVC. Now, it's true there were far more manufacturers of VHS recorders but Sony was not the only company to produce Betamax machines. Sanyo and Telefunken also produced them and there are probably others I'm not aware of.
There are far too many myths regarding this sort of thing, each markets had different issues. The practical reality was that Betamax probably was a better product in many respects, certainly the majority of Sony machines were built as premium products. Also, Betamax generally had features before they appeared on VHS (shuttle search, peep search HiFi - not just stereo - sound). However, none of these were enough of a factor in it becoming dominant. VHS, with more manufacturers was often a product you could find cheaper and still had enough features. Although you can have a long argument about picture and sound quality, if Betamax was better, it wasn't enough to make enough people choose that product.
Re:Incorrect correlation (Score:5, Insightful)
If you look at Betamax it was regarded as being a bit better than VHS but was less widely licensed. Betamax started off with almost all of the market but gradually lost it because Betamax machines tended to be expensive.
I'd say the analogy is pretty good. High end but proprietary system gradually loses market share to more open, cheaper competitor.
You can buy a very good, cheap Android handset from one of the zillions of Android OEMS. That enables Android to gain market share amongst people who can't afford a more expensive iPhone.
Re:Incorrect correlation (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually that's also how the PC won over the Apple computer: First, by demand of IBM, there were two manufacturers of the processor, enabling competition on the processor side (that's ultimately why now the x86-based architecture is dominant). Second, the PC design was open (although that was only because in the beginning, IBM didn't really believe in the PC), so there was competition also in the PCs themselves.
Re:Incorrect correlation (Score:5, Informative)
Second, the PC design was open (although that was only because in the beginning, IBM didn't really believe in the PC), so there was competition also in the PCs themselves.
False. The original IBM PC design was NOT open. Other companies reverse engineered the BIOS and created 'clones' - hence the term 'PC clone'. Some early clones had hardware compatibility issues with the original IBM PC design.
Re:Incorrect correlation (Score:4, Informative)
The BIOS was "open" in that anyone could read it. The Technical Reference Manual included a source listing. It was copyrighted, however, and so could not be used in clones.
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Sure let see how that looks: IPod vs all the other MP3 player, Linux vs Windows. You can go further: Linux is going strong despite "losing", Apple was profitable despite a negligible market share, ...
That's not even considering that we are talking about Apple vs Android, which should be Sony vs VHS. Sony eventually embraced VHS. Apple did not abandon OSX. Worked for both of them.
High Level comparison like that are only good for fortune cookie type wisdom.
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If VHS has sold mostly cassettes that could not play anything nor record and still succeeded, then you would have a point.
As it stands there are a LOT of Android devices sold that count not a whit to advancing Android as a smartphone. They are just feature phones on which running apps in madness; how does that truly advance the platform?
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Informative)
I used a 12" powerbook for 4 years before replacing it with a 15" macbook pro, which I'm still using as my primary home machine 6 years later. Over a similar timeframe, I've gone through about 5 computers at work.
Re:Units sold or already out? (Score:5, Insightful)
Can't directly compare PC and phone sales ... (Score:5, Insightful)
In contrast every two years I can get an iPhone upgrade for free with a two year contract, sure its not the latest generation hardware but its a free hardware upgrade. Or I can splurge and spend $200 every two years and get the latest generation hardware.
You can't directly compare PC vs phone sales if PCs are on a 6+ year purchase cycle and phones are on a 2 year purchase cycle. Keep in mind that these are not competing devices, they are complementary devices. Most people are going to own and use both PCs and phones.
Tablets muddy the waters a little but they are still mostly complementary devices. Not many PC users can switch completely to tablets.
Re:Can't directly compare PC and phone sales ... (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder at which point smartphones will become fast enough so that people will stick the same phone for at least five years or so.
Of course they're more prone to physically breaking than the desktop PC, so they'll be replaced sooner than desktops no matter how well they're performing.
Re:Can't directly compare PC and phone sales ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Can't directly compare PC and phone sales ... (Score:4, Insightful)
batteries expire and many 'common' (ie iPhone) phones batteries and also many uncommon (eg Nokia Windows Phones) aren't easily replaced - having said that, Steve managed to do it, so I guess I could :
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/14377_Sealed_vs_user-replaceable_bat.php [allaboutsymbian.com]
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CD4QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fstevesrantsnraves.blogspot.com%2F&ei=J4vXUtnEAave7AaZsoDQBQ&usg=AFQjCNGCaxTH0h7jTf_VYeudTXpOmvPEIA&sig2=JVa_3FpkZfUqnzKj-aPYMg&bvm=bv.59568121,d.ZGU&cad=rja [google.com]
I recall him saying he is 'coming around' to the mindset of sealed batteries in a recent Phones Show too :
http://www.youtube.com/user/stevelitchfield [youtube.com]
Discount for keeping old phone might change things (Score:3)
Re:Discount for keeping old phone might change thi (Score:4, Informative)
Take a look at T-Mobile. Pay full price for the phone, get the service at 1/4th off.
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> they are way overpowered for what most people use them for
Oh, I don't know about that...it takes quite a bit of horsepower to do all that virus scanning.
> can get an iPhone upgrade for free with a two year contract
^free^included ?
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My guess is there are more cell phones sold each year than automobiles. OH NO, CARS ARE DYING!
I'm really tired of these sensationalist tech pundits pratting on about X is dying because Y is increasing.
Re:Can't directly compare PC and phone sales ... (Score:5, Insightful)
PCs have a longer lifespan, they are way overpowered for what most people use them for. I have a five year old 3GHz 64-bit AMD box. It is still quite usable, I upgraded the video card recently, about $150, and it is still quite usable for gaming. I have no compelling reason to replace this five year old PC.
Firstly; by "PC"s you should understand "laptops". Desktops are already quite rare in most companies outside call centres. Even workers who sit in the same place every day are expected to be able to move to a conference room with their computer and show a presentation.
I'm sure that happens but I'm not seeing much of that. Of course I work in software development, not a whole lot of powerpoint presentations being created. Conference rooms tend to have a PC in them if needed. YMMV.
Still, good point in mentioning laptops. However my laptops tend to last four or more years too. As I mentioned above I have a desktop PC that I use for gaming. Occasionally upgrading the video card and less frequently upgrading the motherboard (5+ years on the current one).
Secondly, you should understand that, for most users the system they use is Windows or OS X. They are "forced" to upgrade by their system becoming obsolete.
Just installed Windows 8.1 on that 5+ year old PC. My 2008 Macbook only recently became unable to run the current version of the Xcode development environment, its the last of the non-64 bit machines not supported by Mountain Lion or Mavericks. And most users are not doing Mac OS or iOS development where they are tied to applications that are quite aggressive about needing the latest OS. I really don't see many people being forced to get new systems, even laptops. YMMV.
With these criteria there is always something horribly wrong with the PC. The screens are almost always lower resolution, which turns out to be a limitation after a year or two.
If the laptop is a desktop replace then it would probably be plugged into an external monitor at one's desk.
The power supplies are plugged in in a way that means that one simple mistake and your computer falls on the ground and breaks. MacBooks use a magnetic power supply that makes it rarer.
Again in that desktop replacement environment that doesn't seem to happen too often. Admittedly in school I developed good freeze reflexes when I felt a little snag on my legs or feet. :-)
Then we come to plasticky badly designed cases, which crack after a year or two. Admittedly that has got better, but I still think a new Mac is going to survive drops better than most PC laptops. This all adds up to the likelyhood that you, or someone you know, will be using your PC after five years is less than the chance for a Mac.
My 2005 Dell Latitude with a crappy plastic case and all survived three years of school with all its tripping hazards, hard use from constantly moving around, etc. It eventually retired to a desktop where it still gets occasional use for Windows XP compatibility testing. YMMV. Admittedly the state of its batteries pretty much confines it to a desktop. It was replaced by that 2008 Macbook that only recently becomes trouble to use due to a lack of upgradability.
Re:Can't directly compare PC and phone sales ... (Score:5, Funny)
Thus an idiot with limited awareness of the world around them is revealed.
Look kids, if you don't have a fucking clue it's not really worth playing "let's pretend" here.
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Firstly; by "PC"s you should understand "laptops". Desktops are already quite rare in most companies outside call centers.
Bzzzt. Incorrect.
Checking in from a Fortune 50 here. I'm the guy that validates and certifies all of our computing "endpoint" hardware. We have a fleet of somewhere close to 8,000 laptops and upwards of 50,000 desktops. And another 30,000 thin clients running Linux.
Desktops are the rule, laptops the exception. Why? A desktop with enterprise management that will last for 4 years costs $500*, a laptop that might last for 3 costs $700*. Laptops have a shorter average lifetime and a higher per-unit cost.
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In contrast every two years I can get an iPhone upgrade for free with a two year contract, sure its not the latest generation hardware but its a free hardware upgrade. Or I can splurge and spend $200 every two years and get the latest generation hardware.
Why do Americans insist that they get phones for free? If I apply the same thinking, I can get a FREE Apple iPhone 5s with a two year contract for ~29€/month + 1 to 50€/month. (If you hadn't guessed, the first part is down payment for the phone).
I tend to prefer to pay upfront for my phones, so I don't get stuck with a operator for 2 years.
Its considered free since the monthly fee remains the same whether you keep the old phone or upgrade to a new phone. Sure the price of the phone is built into the monthly fee but until there is a discount for keeping the old phone the current pattern will hold.
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According to this article [slashdot.org] intrinsic support for XP will end this year. (And by intrinsic I mean OS updates that keep the OS secure from 0-day flaws-not just MSE). Even if they were being run for 2014-2001 = 13 years, the end is nigh. I agree with other commenters that a PC has a shorter life span than you imagine, with 3-4 years tending to be the norm and with 1:1 in sales for "Mac":"PC" they will eventually reach parity within that time. BTW my home has been Windows free since 2004 and Google requires a business case for any Windows PC.
That was a little gripe as I am fighting tooth and nail in another thread in Slashdot from +5 nodded authors who say they run XP with a smile and many reactionaries are here which never were before Vista.
But they do rn XP and still outnumber ipads
Billions of Androids (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:5, Interesting)
Not really.
Because while Androids outsell Apple 4:1 or more, there's a very strange thing going on. Mobile web traffic has iOS using TWICE the amount of data over Android. Or, put another way, 1 iOS user consumes as much data as 8 Android users.
On the spending front, it's about 1:1 iOS:Android - i.e., for every iOS user that buys stuff online, 1 Android user buys stuff online. And even with that, iOS users spend more.
And finally, advertisers apparently prefer iOS users - willing to pay up to twice as much per impression to an iOS user than an Android user.
I don't know what the vast majority of Android users are doing, but it certainly isn't contributing to the ecosystem. It would be more like Mac and PCs, except it appears the vast majority of PCs were used only to play Solitaire as their sole function - leaving the few Mac users being ones to actually use their computers. Then again, the vast majority of PCs are probably used in a similar fashion - surf the web, send email, do facebook, shut down PC....
Of course, given that most Androids are crap-droids that people are buying to replace their featurephones, I guess it makes sense - the phones sell, but they're only used to talk and text. No web browsing.
Makes you wonder, when reports of the average cellphone bill being close to $150, that most people are really paying for plans they're not using. They see shiny Android, they may browse the web the first few days, then boom, the phone's just a phone.
Even Samsung's flagship phones barely crack 10% of the Android market, and Samsung owns about 90% of the Android phones out there, so for every S4, they sell 8 other "budget class" Android phones.
OTOH, the good news is, developers don't have to worry about those phones - most users will probably access the Play store once or twice, then forget about it. Google's metrics only measure the last 3 or 4 weeks, so the vast majority of phones reported would be active users (the ones who probably bought an Android phone to use as a smartphone, and not a fancier featurephone that cost less).
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:4, Interesting)
The mobile web traffic stat ties in with the budget handset stat... Apple only target the high end, so their customers generally have more money to spend on data service and other things in general. This means they use the service more, buy more apps and are better targets for advertisers.
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:4, Interesting)
Because while Androids outsell Apple 4:1 or more, there's a very strange thing going on. Mobile web traffic has iOS using TWICE the amount of data over Android. Or, put another way, 1 iOS user consumes as much data as 8 Android users.
Do you have any reliable, current citations for this? The only evidence I have ever seen were some ancient articles on Apple fan sites. My own personal site gets more Android hits than iOS, so I'm sceptical.
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:5, Informative)
Because while Androids outsell Apple 4:1 or more, there's a very strange thing going on. Mobile web traffic has iOS using TWICE the amount of data over Android. Or, put another way, 1 iOS user consumes as much data as 8 Android users.
Do you have any reliable, current citations for this? The only evidence I have ever seen were some ancient articles on Apple fan sites. My own personal site gets more Android hits than iOS, so I'm sceptical.
If all you find is Apple fan sites (which still reference their sources, btw) then you searched the wrong terms in Google. Try "mobile web traffic report". Here's one example. [walkersands.com]
Re: Billions of Androids (Score:4, Informative)
flopple
"Flopple"? Seriously? I'm a big Android fan, and really annoyed at much of Apple's recent behavior, and even I think that's lame.
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:5, Interesting)
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so only in 80% of the world that android wins, good thing you clarified that dude.
80% of the world where people don't own PCs personally and a smartphone is their only personal connection to the internet. And the 80% of the world where most of the people are financially forced to go for the lowest priced option. In the 20% of the world where people generally have the financial circumstances to be able to have a choice in the matter, then its close with respect to sales. However in actual usage iOS is far ahead of Android. This is probably due to tablets. Android seriously lags when one o
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:5, Insightful)
Wins what? I never understand why people pick a tribe and then pray for the destruction of their foes.
We only win when there are multiple viable choices available. Once someone 'wins' their focus turns to consolidation and not to innovation.
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Wins what? I never understand why people pick a tribe and then pray for the destruction of their foes.
You're not alone. [bgr.com]
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't get confused about this; There are two tribes here; "slightly open" and "closed" and which one wins will make a real difference. This is a question of total control. Android already has clones and fully viable internal competitors (Amazon's kindle systems; chinese ones, etc). IOS to a large extent and Windows 100% arew becoming closed systems in which large media companies and "approved" developers will have special powers nobody else shares.
Currently Microsoft is subsidising every phone they sell. They pay for marketing for Windows 8 and demand that it is the only operating system mentioned on PC suppliers sites. If Microsoft ever gets to 30% market share there will be a massive closedown and that investment they are making now will have to be recovered.
Google saw this some time ago and realised that, when Apple or Microsoft get complete control of the market their search will be locked out of almost every new device. They are now somewhat on the side of freedom and openness just because they realised that closed and locked is a trap for them. That doesn't make them good, and the fact that their backs are against the wall may make them dangerous, however compared to their competitors they aren't "evil". Hope they win, because if anyone else does there is no chance of another competitor arising ever again.
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Billions of Androids (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly this. Google is showing the power of open. All your stuff works with all your other stuff. Amazing.
As long as it all runs the same version, or you're willing to take the time to make it work. Let's keep this real. There's enough BS flying around both camps. The "closed" environment is bound to be more interoperable, look at Adobe and Microsoft. The cons are that they are only interoperable with their own kind. Which one is better? The one that lets you work the way you want. Just because it doesn't work for you doesn't make it bad.
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In related news... (Score:5, Funny)
ABCco writes that the number of apples and oranges sold in 2014 will also reach parity!
captcha: counters
How is this news (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How is this news (Score:4, Funny)
When a 'phone' runs UNIX underneath and is a commercially attractive software platform, then I think there is indeed a basis for comparison.
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That iPhones run xnu is irrelevant given how hard they fight to keep you away from it.
Re:How is this news (Score:5, Interesting)
My iPhone can do everything I can do on my workstation. The screen is too small to be productive at some tasks, but it can do everything.
Sure, I can't access a bash prompt on localhost, unless I jailbreak it, but I definitely have an ssh client and have logged into my server many times... even solved a catastrophe once using just my phone, vi works surprisingly well using the iOS keyboard.
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Well now I know you're just making shit up! EMACS or die bro!
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Can you write and compile your own software on your iPhone?
No, why would you want to? Geez, devs complain about 2560x1440 laptops not having enough screen real estate. WTF?
It sounds like your "workstation" PC is actually just a dumb terminal.
And? With cloud resources isn't that where things are heading ... again. Besides, it's only as dumb as the person sitting at it.
Re:How is this news (Score:5, Funny)
This is nothing. Last year Americans bought 309 million Windows PCs, but they bought over 11 billion paper clips. It is clear that Microsoft has lost its stranglehold on the paperclip/Windows PC market.
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Death Knell For Microsoft's Monopoly? (Score:5, Insightful)
Investment analysts have noticed for quite some time that Apple's iphone has a "halo effect." Specifically, people who buy iphones are more likely to buy Macs (and ipads) in the future. And apple is quite good at this sort of turnover.
So the news here is not that so many iphones are sold. The news is that this may indicate the status of Mac vs. PC in the future.
Re:Death Knell For Microsoft's Monopoly? (Score:5, Insightful)
My gut feeling is that Apple really doesn't give a shit about Mac any more. It's a device with small margins in a shrinking market and sales cycles of 4, 5, even 6 years (Macs just keep going and going and going).
iPhone and iPad however have big margins and a new product revision is released every year. That's where the money is and that's where the future is.
Why the fuck would Apple spend any more time thinking about Mac than it needs to?
Re:Death Knell For Microsoft's Monopoly? (Score:4, Insightful)
Macs don't have small margins. As for why they think about it, because OSX is an important upsell for iOS. An OSX/iOS user is not only spending quite a bit more, but they are much stickier than an iOS user only. That means potentially the ability to lock up the $400+ phone market for a generation.
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Investment analysts have noticed for quite some time that Apple's iphone has a "halo effect." Specifically, people who buy iphones are more likely to buy Macs (and ipads) in the future. And apple is quite good at this sort of turnover.
So the news here is not that so many iphones are sold. The news is that this may indicate the status of Mac vs. PC in the future.
Is that why Mac sales are decreasing quarter after quarter?
Not a fanboi, but (Score:2)
a ridiculous amount of that is caused by people who don't understand function over form. Every business = windows, every art student = mac, but there really is no explaining college students. You need an excel-like program (and there are great free ones) for math, unless you are an engineer. You need a decent email system, and if your school doesn't default to one, you went to the wrong place. You need a word processor, to fix your many spelling and grammatical errors. That's it. Buy the cheapest one that i
What about Samsung? (Score:5, Informative)
Apple apparently sold around 260M devices in 2013.
I can't find a full year for Samsung, but they sold 117M phones in Q3 alone.
Q1: 64M
Q2: 70M
Q3: 117M
That's 251M in just 3 quarters. Phones only, no tablets, no laptops.
Apple sales include Mac, iPods, iPhones and iPads.
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Nice to see a fanboi moderated as redundant.
The numbers came from the same Gartner graphs as the Apple numbers. I just couldn't find Q4.
The shops taking the orders aren't going to be sitting on stock for more than 3 months. They'll lose money if they do - new phones come out all the time and cost the same as the old ones.
I wouldn't be surprised if Samsung sold 400M phones, since Q4 is the biggest in the retail market.
Apple "devices"? (Score:5, Informative)
Apple "devices"? So they're including iPods and phones in this? lol
Apple marketing at its best.
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Even Apple isn't this stupid. This is an analyst trolling for attention.
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iOS is a fork of OS X. Those two operating systems are far more closely related than, say, Windows 95 and Windows 8 - both of which are included as just "Windows" on the graph.
lets toss xbox in the mix (Score:5, Insightful)
since were comparing the entire apple product line to one of microsofts, I think its only fair to toss in the second most popular MS product line out there and see how those numbers add up
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since were comparing the entire apple product line to one of microsofts, I think its only fair to toss in the second most popular MS product line out there and see how those numbers add up
Does the Xbox have a word processor? A spreadsheet? A presentation creator? Does it have any photo manipulation apps or drawing programs with layers and filters? Are there any movie editors, effects composition apps? Does it have any music creation software available for it?
Re:lets toss xbox in the mix (Score:5, Funny)
Yes!
--
Sent from my XBox360
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since were comparing the entire apple product line to one of microsofts, I think its only fair to toss in the second most popular MS product line out there and see how those numbers add up
Does the Xbox have a word processor? A spreadsheet? A presentation creator? Does it have any photo manipulation apps or drawing programs with layers and filters? Are there any movie editors, effects composition apps? Does it have any music creation software available for it?
Does an Ipod?
Ok, the Xbox 360 has sold 77 million (Score:4, Informative)
That's the total to date over years....
Or about the same as something like a month or two of iOS sales.
Re:lets toss xbox in the mix (Score:4, Insightful)
Are people using their Xboxes as PC replacements?
Are they using their ipod's and apple TVs as PC replacements?
Windows 8 has bombed for business users. (Score:4, Insightful)
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> I have very few complaints.
Couldn't find your email program, huh?
Can't compare #s per household either... (Score:2)
I have a phone.
My wife has a phone.
Our son has a phone.
My family then has one computer with three accounts on it.
Sure there are families with multiple computers and one phone, but I doubt that one phone is passed around each day to a different family member. A mobile phone isn't consumed like it was a mobile version of a land line (one line per household).
So instead of selling one device per household with a computer, you sell one device per member of household. A much larger addressable market.
I really wanted to move to iOS (Score:2)
"Devices" != PCs (Score:2)
Really? We're equating phones, ipods and tablets to PCs now? Walk into an office with an iPad and tell your boss you don't need a computer any more. See how far that gets you. By the same token, there are more bikes than cars, I guess Detroit better hang it up and call the liquidators, bikes won.
"devices" aren't even in the same area code as PCs and laptops, capability and *usability* wise. Trying to equate one to the other is ludicrous. One observation that stuck with me about tablets vs computers is
Re: (Score:2)
I was working on roughly the same comment...you just point out the stupidity of this article far more efficiently then i did, so ill comment here instead.
My analogy was that they sold more fries then oranges so clearly oranges must suck.
Re:"Devices" != PCs (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, because a lot of PC users do nothing more than facebook and email... Many people bought them simply because they were the only or cheapest way to access the limited functions of the internet that they make use of.
But for these people an ipad is actually a far superior device, they don't have to worry about malware infections or having to manually update a bunch of different software, or maintaining a software firewall, or running av scans, or any of that junk.
PCs were never "ready for the desktop", they were used because there was no better alternative. Now that better alternatives are available, users are using them.
Re:"Devices" != PCs (Score:4, Insightful)
The Network Effect was *part* of it (Score:2)
"There was concentration in decision making in the 80s so a platform could win by convincing 500 individuals who had the authority (as CIOs) to impose through fiat a standard on the centers of gravity of purchasing power."
Apple products were *far* more expensive in the 80's and 90's. And the OS wasn't that good.
OSX was a major change for Apple. It was a stable, modern platform with a future. The pricepoints of PCs dropping was the other major change. Now PCs are so cheap that even if a Mac is double
Apples and Oranges (Score:5, Insightful)
That can't be right (Score:2)
or if it is, it's pretty irrelevant. Don't Android devices outsell iOS like 4 to 1? If those numbers for PC sales are correct, we should be hearing news about how Android outsold PCs long ago. Who cares about Apple?
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PCs will become like the super workstations of the late 80s and early 90s.. They'll be $10000 and only corporates and government will be able to afford them. The rest of us will be stuck with locked down content consumption devices..
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Depends what you mean by "Stuck with", for the vast majority of users content consumption is all they do, and having a large complicated workstation is very dangerous for someone who doesn't know how to manage it properly.
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The fallout though is that the internet will cease to exist as a p2p platform.. Only fortune 500s and governments will create most of the content.. Cheap workstation hardware is a necessity, so this is worrisome.
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a processor about on par with the first Core 2 Duo
Lol. No, they don't.
Re:death of the pc? (Score:4, Informative)
Sunspider scores for the iphone 5S and Note 3 are nearly identical to the Core 2 Duo, remember Conroe is 7.5 years or 5 Moore generations ago.
Re:death of the pc? (Score:4, Informative)
Sunspider score? That's more to do with improving Javascript engines than a better CPU! The Note 3's CPU is apparently capable of 930 MFLOPS, while even the lowest end E6300 Core 2 Duo can get 8.8 GFLOPS.
If you count GPU performance then the iPhone 5s has 76.8GFlops, but then consumer graphics cards were up to 1TFlop by 2009.
Re: (Score:2)
Fell at the first hurdle, so no need to really bother with the rest. Seeing the world through the prism of gaming, it's hardly a surprise that you don't have a clue about how the real world works.
Re: Android numbers (Score:2)
So Apple don't count Apple TV in that?
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Would you calculate Windows' installed base by counting only $2k+ gaming PCs?
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