Except for one thing.

The article does not dismiss market share.

The article argues that market share, and market share alone, is not a reliable indicator of a company's health.

Apple's profits have been rising year on year.

I would have thought for any company's health, profit would be more important than market share.

Who know what will happen in the future, but when you say something like "but pointless if you only end up selling one per year" doesn't seem applicable if its supposed to be in reference to Apple, as long as both iPhone sales and profits continue to increase.

I don't see how there is a trend away from Apple, as long as Apple sales continue to grow. And also, recent reports suggest that more Android users plan to switch to Apple than the other way around.

Article link

To stress again that this isn't a pissing contest. I just think any suggestion that Apple is on some sort of wane are greatly exaggerated and a little premature.

Except for last quarter of course...

I'm pretty sure profits grew. It was only the rate at which they grew that fell.

you may want to check that. Revenue up, profit down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22274324

It has a lot to do with the relative 'spin' applied to Apple at the moment.

Sorry, my mistake.

The point still stands though, insomuch as any company making nearly $10bn a quarter, where those profits are the lion's share of the market's total profits, probably isn't in as much trouble as the media has liked to portray.

And the original point of the article still stands - insomuch as market share alone is not a good indicator of a company's health.

Or do you agree with Stiggles that that article, and the concept of fair share profit analysis were nonsense?

But you would be wrong to think that, apple and samsung compete in the very same market s3/i5 s4/5s are direct competitors to each other. One is on an upward curve one on a downward curve.

One quarter's results, where profits were still nearly $10bn, doesn't make that much of a downward curve.

Market share is very important in the phone industry, particularly because so much hinges on the third-party and developer support for the products.

Still a curve downwards in relation to market share and profit simple as that. However if you wish to simply quote the present they are still doing well just not as well.

As I said previously a snapshot of apple performance without context one would be excused for thinking everything is rosy just as the article you linked to tries to portray. However the truth is that is business you can't just look at the present you have to predict years ahead and this is where the market is predicting trouble for apple.

Its not a curve. Its currently one point on a line. One point on a line is not a curve, or a trend.

No-one has said that market share isn't important. Just that its not the only measure of a company's health.

Do you want to argue that third party and developer support for iOS has some sort of significant decline?

I argue that would be one of the fears of investors.


And that seems exactly what that article is implying...

It is fine for you to behave like an Ostrich it will be fatal for apple to do likewise.

Looks like Apple's own underhanded tactics have come back around to bite them where it hurts.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/05/...titrust-judge/

A fear of what may happen in the future isn't the same as what is currently the case.

I don't think that's what the article is saying at all. It simply says that market share alone doesn't tell the whole story.

As is illustrated by this simple, albeit extreme, example:

Question

Company A has 25% market share. Company Z has 75% market share. Which company is doing better?

Answer:

With market share alone, there’s simply no way to know or tell. Company A might be bringing in all the profits and company Z might be going bankrupt.

I'm not behaving like anything.

I'm simply saying:

1. Reports of Apple being in some sort of serious trouble as of now, and based on current figures, are greatly exaggerated.

2. One point on line does not make a curve or a trend.

The eBook thing isn't looking good since Jobs' emails to Murdoch surfaced.

On the subject of patents that might raise an eyebrow, I see that Twitter was recently awarded one for pull to refresh.

No, it says that market share is one of the worst ways to evaluate the relative positions of competitors, and implies that everything is absolutely fine with a decreasing market share as long as you have a higher profit margin than your competitors, dances around making up a new figure of "ratio of profits to market share", or, as most people call it "profit margin", and suggests that's the all important figure to compare companies. Of course, this is all done in such way to 'explain' why Apple is fabulous and much better than other every company, and how those meanies saying Android is doing better are very naughty.

Actually, I can see why you like it.

Pengiun settled this week hand over $75 Million. They probably knew this would turn out baldly. Macmillan, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette had all settled with the DoJ.

Apple will probably sue the DoJ if they rule against them as they operate above the law

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05...ay_75m_ebooks/

The Murdoch story here:



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/te...xing.html?_r=0

Is it really world apart? It looks very similar, runs the same OS which hasn't changed in years and very little features have been added either. Since 2007, the iphone has barely changed while others have.

No, it says that if you only look at market share it is one of the worst ways to evaluate the relative positions of competitors.

I don't "like it", I agree with it.

Suppose we both run a business in the same market.

I have 75% of the market share.

You have 25% of the market share.

Based on that information and that information alone, who's business is doing better?

Its utterly absurd to say that the iPhone 5 is barely any different to the original iPhone.

It says everything that I posted. It doesn't just say "if you only look at market share".

Is it really?

The design of the case may be different but the Home button is in the same place. The same rancid and boring placement of icons on the screen which even you cannot deny hasn't changed since 2007.

Feature wise what else has been added? Precious little.