![]() They both won, and both got most of what they wanted, more or less, and at this stage iPhone or Android phone sales announcements are really just victory laps. (T)racking precisely how well Apple and Google’s mobile platforms are going has ceased to be very interesting. Was it unfair to compare Microsoft’s very successful software licensing business model to Apple’s mostly unsuccessful integrated hardware and software business model in the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s? Second, what the heck makes Miguel Helft think that you can’t compare Apple and Google just because they have two different business models? Almost every business, in almost every market sector, has a different business model. ~ Nick Lappos ((The Military Quotation Book by James Charlton)) If you’re in a fair fight, you didn’t plan it properly. The goal of business isn’t to be fair, it’s to win. ~ Miguel Helftįirst, as Benedict Evans, Horace Dediu and others are fond of saying, unfair comparisons are often relevant comparisons. Those are fundamentally different businesses. Further, it’s been estimated that the iPhone has made around $500 billion over its lifetime.Īpple sells mostly hardware. The iPhone, on the other hand, has generated more revenue in the past three months than Android has in its entire existence. Google has made an estimated $22 billion in profits over the lifetime of Android. After Google began to give Android away for free, Microsoft’s licensing business model was unsustainable. ~ Sun Tzuīefore Android, there were two viable business models in personal computing: licensing an operating system for profit and device sales. The highest realization of warfare is to attack the enemy’s plans. Not only was Microsoft prevented from dominating the nascent mobile marketplace, the entire foundation of Microsoft’s personal computing business model was undermined. However, in the short run, Android was an unconditional success. In the latter case, Apple’s app ecosystem proved to be surprisingly troublesome. Android’s long-term objective was to prevent Google from being locked out by platform owners. ~ Og Mandino Congratulations On Achieving Your Primary Strategic ObjectiveĪny money that Google makes form Android is a bonus because money was never Android’s primary objective anyway.Īndroid’s immediate objective was to keep Microsoft from dominating mobile the way Microsoft had dominated the desktop. There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late. The iPhone took the high end of the market, Android took the low end and there was just no room for Microsoft’s entrant to grow and prosper. It was an amazing achievement.Ĭompare that to Microsoft, which moved much, much more slowly and didn’t introduce a competing smartphone operating system until 2009. When they saw the iPhone in 2007, they went back to the drawing board and by 2008, they were ready to introduce a revamped Android operating system that could compete head-to-head with the iPhone and its iOS operating system. Google purchased Android in 2006 with the intention of competing against Blackberry and Microsoft. Google doesn’t get enough credit for the amazing pivot they made with Android. ((Senator Everett Dirkson)) Congratulations On The Pivot ![]() As they used to say: A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re taking real money. I want to congratulate Google on making any money at all on Android, let alone ~$22 billion in profits. Both companies are very successful at what they do. (T)he comparisons between Google’s Android business and Apple’s iOS business that are starting to surface (Apple generated $32.2 billion in iPhone sales in the most recent quarter), well, they don’t mean much either. Last week, an Oracle lawyer said in court that Google had made $31 billion in revenue and $22 billion in profit from Android, according to Bloomberg.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |