Comparison of the Day

Jim Edwards, preaching for the Church of Market Share:

Branding and quality are important, of course. Apple usually wins there. And Apple’s business model is to only do the most profitable thing, not the most widespread thing. So loss of share may not bother Apple CEO Tim Cook. It may, in fact, be good for both margins and shareholders.

But the history of computing has one iron-cast lesson for us all: Devices get cheaper over time, and better over time. The high-priced seller usually loses. This is why nobody uses $8.8 million Cray computers anymore.

Yes, that’s what Apple’s iPhone business resembles: Cray. OK, sure.

Update: The 100 supercomputers in the world today. About 20 percent of them are from Cray.

★ Saturday, 31 May 2014