Advertisement:

Can one company beat Apple?

By Aarreola1003, March 7, 2010 at 2:55 pm
apple-logo1.jpg

Can any company stop or beat the great Apple Company? That
is the question that I pose to everyone.

 

As almost everyone knows Apple has made a great computer
that is rarely hit with viruses and is a pretty reliable computer. They made
the Ipod that has been there bread and butter; it is a very rare case if no one
in this world knows about the Ipod. Pretty much everyone has an Ipod. Then they
came out with the Iphone, which has revolutionized the smart phone business. It
has come close to beating there nearest competitor, which is the Blackberry. But
no company had ever come close to Blackberry and Apple did it in less than a
year to come close to the popularity of the Blackberry. And now Apple is
trekking into a new area, when on April the IPad comes out. Apple wants to
combat the net book business and they will be conquering that business because
Apple almost always comes out with very good and reliable products.

 

Now Microsoft has tried to come close to what Apple has
built up. They have tried their hand in the Mp3 business. They came out with
the Microsoft Zune, when it first came out I have to admit from the specifications
that they had when the Zune first came out, it sounded like a pretty nice Mp3
player. But the only drawback was that it looked like a brick and who is going
to want to carry a brick around? Not many people thought it was a good Mp3
player and I would pretty much believe that it didn't crack the top 5 of
popular Mp3 players. Now in terms of software their moneymaker is their Office
programs. Every business in the world has an Office program running and most
students want to install that program on their computers because they are used
to the Office programs. Now they had a big time flop when the much-hyped
Windows Vista came out. It was a totally different system then from what the
average user was accustomed to. And then what angered many of its users was
that fact that you couldn't install any of your peripheral devices onto your
brand new computer that was running Vista. So then they had cover up their
mistake and come out with Windows 7. And from the commentaries they got Windows
7 correct but after the flop of Vista, could you trust Microsoft? Now one area
that none of it competitors has entered is the video game business. They
created Microsoft Xbox 360; now the 360 have had its ups and downs. When the
360 came out it was one of the very much popular machines. But when the down
periods that Microsoft had was when the much problematic problems came out,
which was the 3 red rings, which just shut down the machine. So Microsoft had
to say sorry for the error and send out a communication to every 360 user, they
had to send their machine to corporate and they would replace their machine and
renew their 3 yr warranty.

 

Hp has been in the computer business for some time, they
have created laptops; desktops and they are pretty popular. They also tried
their hand in the smart phone business and before Apple came out they had a
good product in the Ipaq, and pretty much every businessperson had an Ipaq, Now
Apple has left them behind and is not looked back. But they are trying their
hand again. Trying to get their customers to believe in the Ipaq. And they are
going to sell a touch screen Ipaq.

 

So the million-dollar question, can any of these companies
that I mentioned or will a dark horse come out and come close to Apple's
popularity or even surpass? 

Filed under: Uncategorized

Tags: Apple, Blackberry, HP, IPad, Ipaq, Iphone, Ipod, Microsoft, Office, Vista, Windows 7, Xbox 360, Zune

Advertisement:

Comments

Leave a comment
  • Jansolo said March 7, 2010 at 12:00 am

    How is Apple actually going to beat anyone in the netbook market? It
    technically doesn't even compete.

    1. Different form factor, 2. Not multi-tasking so they won't cannibalize MacBook sales, 3. No physical keyboard, 4. Neutered OS.

    The better question is how they will compete with the Dell Mini 5, JooJoo and Courier.

  • Aarreola1003 said March 8, 2010 at 12:00 am
    In reply to Jansolo:

    Well the question was brought up on the keynote when they wanted to compete with the netbook. but now various publications have stated that they want to compete with the kindle..

  • Jansolo said March 8, 2010 at 12:00 am
    In reply to Jansolo:

    And it does compete with the Kindle and the Sony EBook Reader and the B&N reader, too. But it is supposed to offer a lot more.

    Look, as it stands, the iPad is just a bigger version of the iPhone. Apple has no idea if it will sell because as it stands, there is no killer app or need for it. It sits awkwardly between the Macbook and iPhone with no obvious use. In fact, Apple is hoping and praying that some developers will figure out the next killer app for it that makes it a compelling device. But think about it: the need for a phone is obvious, the need for a portable general purpose computer is obvious, but the need for a tablet computer with NO OBVIOUS PURPOSE is questionable at best in terms of need.

    The iPad specifically lacks a multi-tasking OS and physical keyboard so that it doesn't eat into Macbook sales and moreover, it lacks a 3G radio so that it won't eat into iPhone sales.

    Really, the question has to be asked from a consumer stand point, what is the use case for the iPad? It's not as portable as the iPhone, it's not as powerful or as versatile as the Macbook, so what is the point? You can't do full fledged web browsing in it since it's running a lite version of Safari without plug ins and you can't load any alternate web browsers to augment the lack of functionality inherent in the device.

    So.. what's the point of the iPad?

    Rather than ask who can beat Apple and tout their successes, let's talk about their issues. Desktop sales are down, iPod sales are down (due to device convergence), Apple TV sales were never at a point where they were worth talking about at investor meetings and calls and now they are attemtping to create a device in a segment where there is no known demand.

    Your statement about the iPad is altogether lacking. Business people typically do not use Windows Mobile powered phones as you can see from marketshare numbers. In fact, RIM is the de facto phone of business people and executives, something Apple has not been able to do anything about as of yet due to a number of factors (check out RIM's BES for an understanding of the enterprise capbilities of the Blackberry vs the consumer offerings of the iPhone). Moreover, what the heck is a touch screen iPaq? Dude, the iPaq has always had a touch screen. *Always*. You just had to use a stylus versus your finger. What iPaq touchscreen device are you referring to?

    The original Zune was based off of the Toshiba Gigabeat S which had better reviews than the Zune. The first Zune was brought to market very quickly and at best, was a half assed effort to show investors that they taking portable music player market seriously after their partners failed to make a compelling device that could compete (eg: Creative, iRiver, Dell, etc.).

  • Aarreola1003 said March 8, 2010 at 12:00 am
    In reply to Jansolo:

    Yea I did state that on my first blog entry that the Ipad is just a Giant Iphone. It does the same thing as a IPhone offers the same apps as an Iphone. And that they will offer an app like Office but how are you going to print these documents when there is no usb port unless you do it wirelessly. Yes the Ipaq has been touch screen using the stylus. But let's say that you lose the stylus.. You couldn't use your finger to touch the screens icons. Well that is where the term crackberry came, because more people use the Blackberry phone then the Ipaq. Now I did read in the Ny times that at a recent conference for tech stuff, that Hp had presented their new creation of Ipaq touch screen phone to try to get back into the cell phone business.

  • Jansolo said March 8, 2010 at 12:00 am
    In reply to Jansolo:

    So let's back to your point here: can anyone beat Apple. The answer is a resounding yes.

    1. Phones. RIM sells more phones than Apple, so does Nokia.
    2. Desktops. Dell and HP both outsell Apple in sheer volume.
    3. Laptops. See above.
    4. OS shipments. Microsoft absolutely tramples Apple in OS shipments.
    5. Contextual software. When it comes to other software that is not bundled with a desktop such as an office suite, image editing, etc., again, Microsoft beats the hell out of apple as does Adobe. If you want to count free software, then Safari, for example, is big loser in the free web browser market place. Chrome, from a purely technical stand point is vastly superior to Chrome in terms of page rendering speed, feature set, application robustness and reliability.
    6. Portable music player. It is here that Apple does well, but this is a shrinking market due to Apple's convergence play as they've moved the market from a single, segmented device to the iPhone. See above for shipments of the iPhone vs other players in the smart phone market.
    7. Video games. Apple hasn't stated how many games they've shipped versus the other portable players, so it's hard to say exactly who is winning in game sales by either volume or margins. But, if you counted Pippin or desktop games, then Apple would be considered a total failure.
    8. Digital music sales. Apple beats everyone in music sales via digital downloads, but unfortunately for Apple, their music sales via iTunes are break even for the company and seen as a method to drive iPod sales.
    9. Web applications. Apple has barely put a toe in the water via MobileMe and it was a nightmare when it was first deployed. Compared to the offerings from Google, Apple has no presence.
    10. Hype. Apple wins here without a doubt. The marketing machine at Apple is quite powerful. All you have to do is repeat the same old words over and over: amazing, powerful, fantastic, mind blowing and eventually people will listen to these words and believe, but at the end, it's just consumerism and nothing that will drastically alter your life.

    So are Apple's products the shiniest and create the biggest zealots? Perhaps. Do they ship the most in volume? By all means, absolutely not.

  • Ethan316 said March 10, 2010 at 12:00 am
    In reply to Jansolo:

    The only product that is worth purchasing with the Apple logo on it is the Apple iPhone. Other than iPhone, in every area, Apple does not compete at all.

Leave a comment