Mobile Focused Podcast: Less Expensive iPhones, and the Globalization of Tech

I’m happy to announce that I am rolling up my podcast with Andreessen Horowitz partner Benedict Evans into the Tech.pinions podcast as well. We will shoot to release these discussions between us every few weeks, midweek.

Ben Bajarin and Benedict Evans discuss what a low-cost iPhone could mean for Apple and explore the global and regional differences of iOS an Android.

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If you happen to use a podcast aggregator or want to add it to iTunes manually the feed to our podcast is: techpinions.com/feed/podcast

Posts Mentioned:

Benedict Evans – Note on Cheap iPhones

Ben Bajarin – The Regionalization of the Smartphone Market

Jan Chipchase – Connectivity is not binary, the network is never neutral

Published by

Ben Bajarin

Ben Bajarin is a Principal Analyst and the head of primary research at Creative Strategies, Inc - An industry analysis, market intelligence and research firm located in Silicon Valley. His primary focus is consumer technology and market trend research and he is responsible for studying over 30 countries. Full Bio

37 thoughts on “Mobile Focused Podcast: Less Expensive iPhones, and the Globalization of Tech”

  1. This was an interesting podcast to listen to, because it foster two nagging thoughts for me.

    First, focusing on analyzing Apple’s strategy, customer and developer behaviours based almost solely on quantitative values like that presented in this podcast misses something in my mind. This focus on quantitative aspects reminds me of the adage “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing!” I would appreciate in future posts and podcasts some meaningful insight on the qualitative aspects of Apple’s strategy and the implications of this going forward for them, their customers and developers. I will give you an example of a qualitative aspect for me: security and privacy. Anything I have heard suggest that Android is anything but strong in these two related areas. For me personally, I will “always” a supposed $ premium to ensure that I get and use the most secure and privacy providing system. On a feature scale I would rate these two features as 5 out of 10 in weighting against other features (price, ease of use, reliability, etc.)

    Second, the discussion on how emerging markets provide great opportunities for local businesses is intriguing in how Apple might fare in these articles. Wouldn’t this be answered in part by how valued is Apple’s brand in these emerging markets? Here again it occurs to me that as long as Apple provides a sense of meaningful additional value in areas that people care about they could do very well in capturing profitable segments of smartphone users in these markets too. I really appreciated hearing about how infrastructure plays such a significant part in these markets (power source availability for example).

    Thank you.
    Mark

  2. I was one of those harping on no cheap phones at Benedict’s site. Of course, he’s right: He doesn’t suggest Apple do cheap; he proposes Apple can fill in market segments it does not now without doing cheap.

    My obviously reactive comments were about mission, especially its effect internally. To be more usefully relevant: Nothing kills a company quicker than internally perceived completion of its mission. Enterprise back in dock? Cut. Wrap. Roll the credits. That’s all she wrote. Mission is everything. Why is the prime cause. Apple knows this.

    Apple learned from Microsoft’s boom and bust not to aim at market dominance; it aims at market preeminence. We all know that. Just to say: That stance has a critical internal meaning, affecting Apple’s ability to hire the best and let them do their best. This has huge pricing implications as well.

    The price is might.

  3. Great podcast. Great break down of the differences between iOS usage and Android usage. I kept wondering, at what point does the Android market share get large enough that it’s iOS equivalent segment provides equivalent usage? The data point is well considered.

    But even then I wonder, if someone can afford a highend Android phone, why does that not also equate to affording highend data plans and thus equivalent usage? You may have addressed this in the podcast and I missed it. Sometimes I have to listen a few times through to catch everything.

    Also, I am still amazed at how many iPhone 4/4s’s are still out there. I think Tim Cook once commented at how vibrant the 4s sales are still. Two questions, why does this not reduce iOS usage share in the same way mid-range Android devices do not (seem to) contribute to usage?

    And two, if selling old model iPhones as a mid-tier strategy is working, even with usage considered, what advantage is there to Apple selling a new model mid-tier device?

    Last question. I love how you get into the behaviour of consumers. Is it possible to quantitatively assess what is intrinsic to an iOS customer vs an Android customer? In places where all resources are equal, such as the US market where there may be little general difference between a highend iPhone vs a highend Android phone with regard to available resources and the cost of those resources, there is still something that makes an iOS user a more valuable user than an equivalent Android user. Otherwise, companies like T-Mobile and Sprint would not have felt the need to court iPhone so doggedly. Is it simply that Apple makes a more inviting and engaging device (and by device I mean the whole “widget” as they say, the whole software/hardware/design package)?

    Thanks for a great podcast!
    Joe

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