Why Apple Should Fear Android

Apple essentially created the PC with the Mac, only to see Microsoft copy its software and takeover the market. Is it possible that Apple hasn’t learned any lessons? Henry Blodget at Business Insider is having déjà vu: With the PC, Apple “insisted on controlling every aspect of its product” and lost to Microsoft, which “sold the software to every PC vendor who wanted it.” Now, something similar is happening with the iPhone and Google’s Android: Apple is insisting on controlling every aspect of its products, while Google is giving it to any smart-phone distributor who wants it. Already, more developers are developing for Android than they are for the iPhone operating system, iOS. Blodget writes, “Apple fans want to believe that Apple can maintain its extraordinary profit growth merely by being a "premium" player—selling fewer devices than the Walmart of the smartphone world (Android) but maintaining a superior product and superior margins. This is wishful thinking. There just aren't that many premium buyers in the world. And the gap between the latest iPhone and the latest Android phones is closing.”