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Comment by nojvek | Hacker News Reader

Well they are winning with iPhones aren’t they?

It's a question of what winning means I think. In terms of profits, they might be winning. If it's market share though, they are not winning, and that means there is still an opening for open standards.

If it was your company, would you rather have 99% market share and 1% of profits, or 1% market share and 99% of profits?

99% of profits, obviously, but you've forgotten what thread we're in. This is a thread about Linux and software freedom. For that, market share is way more important than profit share.

If I was making 99% of the profit off of 1% the market, I’d be terrified someone could just undercut me and take either my 1% or a big portion of the remaining market, that I’m trying to also get.

Owning the profit is great, but owning the market means longevity.

Are they? Last time I've heard Android still runs in the vast majority of phones, worldwide.

Apple is winning in terms of making virtually all the profit available to those selling phones, and Android's market share advantage is not nearly as big as you think, at least not in areas where people have a lot of disposable income, like in the US, where it's basically 50/50 between Android and iOS.

Why is that the more important metric given the subject?

It's not. Google had android users using Google Software, and seeing Google Ads. Having more users on android gives you more value when it comes to data collection and selling things to people.

But aren't apple customers some of the best targets for ads because of their higher spending power?

It's an important metric because it makes post writers favorite company win.

Worldwide stats are a lot less important than addressable market stats.

Nope. Android has more market share despite apple having the head start.

It's somehow easier to be a follower here, Apple set the trends for years, Android only had to replicate and sell cheaper.

I don't think apple is looking to beat android in marketshare, but instead in profits. They are mostly not interested in selling cheaper commodities, and instead work hard for premium differentiation (and maximal value capture of the whole ecosystem around premium smartphones with services and peripherals).

Besides, if they did win smartphone marketshare too hard, they risk regulation on the amount of control they enjoy of their platforms, which might harm their profits.

Possibly yes, and Apple has historically never been into that. Macs were not the biggest share either.

As alluded to elsewhere, Google doesn’t care about Android being profitable. They only care that it is widely used so they can continue to deliver ads and harvest data.

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