Apple’s Pursuit of Profit Rather Than Market Share

And speaking of MG Siegler, he has a good piece about Apple’s pursuit of profit rather than raw market share. This might be the single key factor to understand about Apple as a business. The difference between Apple and its competitors can be striking. Siegler writes:

According to the report, Apple made $1.6 billion in operating profit off of the iPhone in Q3. Nokia, meanwhile, made $1.1 billion. Let’s put this in perspective. Recent numbers suggest Nokia controls roughly 35% of the worldwide handset market. Apple? About 2.5%.

Not 25%. Two point five percent.

Another way to put it is that Apple is concerned with unit share, but only in the most profitable segments of the market.

★ Wednesday, 11 November 2009