Grafton Falls News

Microsoft Vs Apple Market Share

iPhone 4 vs Android

<P>Android based phones and Apple's iPhone 4 offer similar capabilities. The two are alike in many ways (touch screen, OS complex, impressive amount of applications), but their business model differs greatly. </P>

<P>At the launch of the <A HREF="http://www.ukprize.co.uk/Free-UK-Prize-Draw/43/iPhone.html">iPhone 4</A>, Apple was able to seal an unprecedented partnership with AT & T, the leading telecom operator in the US. The Apple brand has not only obtained control over the interface that operators are reluctant to lose, but also managed to grab a portion of the revenues of operators (packages and services) through regular annuities. In return for the repayment of between 10 and 30%, Apple has provided an exclusive long-term (more than 24 months) and with the more expensive subscriptions in Europe, Apple will even make more income on the repayment of the operator on the sale of the iPhone 4! </P>

<P>The iPhone 4 has kept its promise and has been well and truly a major ground breaking innovation with the mobile phone "classic", earning the respect of consumers and analysts and a success that knows no boundaries, with more than 55 million units have already been sold worldwide. Therefore it is difficult to challenge the business model chosen by Apple who could benefit fully from the innovation only if AT & T was able to face the fact that it had made the right choice. However, other market participants found them without the competitive advantage of AT & T. Knock, Knock, say, Google. </P>

<P>If the business model of Apple is attacking aggressively to telephone operators, the business model of Google is to caress in the direction of hair. Operators earn quick succession, the mastery of the interface can modify the code (Android being open source) better yet Google will share advertising revenue with the operator if it is included in the Google search by default. </P>

<P>In the U.S., FBR Capital Markets suggests that Google would be willing to pay the operator $ 25 to $ 50 by phone to sell their mobile! Knowing that an operator pays between $ 50-150 for a mobile and acknowledging the importance of profitability, I do not see how they will be able to refuse such an offer. </P>

<P>If the iPhone 4 has opened a new market, <A HREF="http://www.ukprize.co.uk/">Google</A> is in the process of trying to round up the bet, offering money to the operators. Google has always had its eyes riveted on the revenue generated by advertising on their search engine. What is particularly thought to be their ability to tackle new markets, destroying the business models of players, offering free services (sometimes at a loss)? </P>

<P>In the PC world, Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer and Firefox are all a threat to the market share of search from Google. So why not take the lead with mobile and thus eliminate the potential barriers? </P>

<P>Android does not compete directly with the iPhone 4, but will instead seek to capitalize on the mass distribution. The Apple fans who want the iPhone 4 would really probably remains loyal to Apple. It is something the iPhone 4 has captured against a small part of the smartphone market. </P>

<P>The google <A HREF="http://www.ukprize.co.uk/">Android</A> strategy is to offer a cheaper, more diverse (from Apple you can choose between the  and the iPhone 44 only). However, Apple seems to be content with its reign at the top end - which allows collecting the highest added value. No wonder Apple also increasing their market share in laptops, yet they do not seek to dominate the market as Microsoft does for PCs. </P>

<P>One possibility is that the best products dominate the market - and naturally the iPhone 4 (for now at least), especially that beyond the characteristics of mobile value added stems from the quality and quantity applications available. And there is still the King Apple (For the Time Being of course!) </P>

<P>But the evolution of the PC market does not lean in favor of this theory. As with the Mac and Windows, Android need not be the best product on the market, it is sufficient to exceed the mobile standards, and there's no question about it.</P>
To return to applications, the developers think that the confrontation between iPhone 4 and Google - and if the iPhone 4 remains the development platform of choice, what will happens when Android will be the only open source platform for the remaining two? All manufacturers eager to use it thereby increase the number of users and applications in the long term. </P>

<P>With its strategy, Google is well and truly has become the Microsoft of the mobile (though equally valid for the PC). For its part, Apple is positioned ... as Apple's mobile.
</P>

About the Author

About the Author: Content writer and specialist

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Microsoft Vs Apple Market Share
Smartphone market share for 2011 apple vs android os

Direct sales vs Channel Sales

Quite simply, direct sales is when a company sells its only products and services ‘directly’ to its client or customer base without an outside party involved.

People say that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, the direct route, and so direct sales is the conventional approach of selling directly to your customer and cutting out the middleman.

Cutting out the middleman sounds like a good idea at first. Selling directly means that you keep all of the profit; no one is taking a chunk out of your sales. But on further consideration this is not always the case.

When competently analysed, direct sales are full of hidden (and not so hidden) costs - salaries and overheads.

Imagine what it would cost Coca Cola to vend directly to their customers! The costs would eventually prohibit the activity entirely.

Instead, Coca Cola chooses to sell its products through third parties, such as shops, supermarkets and via vending machines.

Of course, they still make healthy profits, but they don’t incur the cost of having a huge sales operation. That’s not to say that Coca Cola Corporation doesn’t spend millions on sales and marketing activities, but they don’t actually sell directly to their customers.

Some companies such as Apple now primarily sells its own products via its website and retail stores, although they have allowed some other companies such as PC World to stock their computers as they’ve become more popular.

Of course, in order to increase the number of items sold worldwide, with products like the Apple iPod, they have allowed resellers to sell their products too, in order to massively expand where the iPod can be bought. This is known as Channel Sales.

Two thirds of all computing sales in the world are not direct sales like Apple; instead, they are ‘Channel Sales’ or ‘Indirect Sales’. This is where the company employs a third party, a reseller to sell their products on to their customers.

The most obvious example of a company that does this is Microsoft. Microsoft’s products are sold through ‘Channel Sales’ because Microsoft would have to become a retail operation in order to achieve the same level of global sales. This would hugely increase their costs and still not be as effective as ‘Channel Sales’.

Both Microsoft and Apple use Channel Sales because it makes sense. Both companies use Channel Sales in different ways. Microsoft to reach as far as possible and Apple to expand the sale of their most popular products.

Apple has developed a mixed approach, which has allowed it to capture an increasingly large share of the home computer market, while retaining some control over how individual products are sold.

Channel Sales is like outsourcing the costs of having your own far-reaching sales operations, whilst still retaining an excellent portion of the sales profits. These days the relationship between the seller and the reseller is much closer, allowing for better cooperation and coordinated strategies.

Channel Sales doesn’t just mean shipping your products off to a third party and hoping for the best. Channel Sales means keeping your outsourced sales teams up to date with your products, ensuring that they are adequately informed and regularly updating them on changes and issues in order for them to function at their best.

Nonetheless, this is significantly less costly than training and maintaining your own sales teams. Particularly with the current global economic problems we are all facing, any opportunity to save money and increase profits has to be considered a benefit.

This type of outsourced sales through partnerships with resellers is effective for strategic growth and for the increase in incremental revenue for the vendor.

But some companies don’t feel that they can rely upon the effectiveness of resellers to do their products justice.

Finding the right strategic partners is of course an essential part of using Channel Sales. Without the right partners, you are handing your potential growth over to another company without a guarantee of revenue. Finding the right Channel Sales partner is a very important process when making the decision to expand your business through indirect sales.

Your Channel Sales partners are motivated by a need to make profit for all concerned. The more sales they make, the more they earn. Selling or reselling is what these companies do best. Your company may make ‘widgets’, that’s what you do best. Whereas your Channel Sales partner is an expert in making sales, or if you prefer generating sales leads.

Using Channel Sales leaves you the time to develop your products instead of spending time and money on making sales. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have your own sales activities or that you should rely entirely on indirect sales, but the effectiveness of Channel Sales cannot be ignored.

The main benefit of working with a Channel Sales provider - a reseller, is that you can rapidly expand your business without having to rapidly expand your entire business operation.

Of course, if you then wish to slow any aspect of your business down, you can stop supplying your resellers with certain products or introduce new ones with little fuss. All of this costs the vendor nothing in terms of initial outlay; the cost of Channel Sales comes after the sale is made.

Overall, it doesn’t have to be an either/or decision; companies can employ channel sales partners in order to get the most expansive sales growth.

It’s been successful for companies like Apple and Dell in the past. But it’s important that if you’re going to combine the two activities that there isn’t conflict within the channels or between direct and indirect sales staff. This is why finding the right Channel Sales partner and building a strong ongoing relationship with them is so important to your business.

To find out how Channel Sales could rapidly expand your business and increase your profits, contact Andy at VSL today on +44 (0)1798-875040 or by email at [email protected]

About the Author

Andy Dickens CEO of VSL(http://www.virtual-sales.com) is a veteran of sales with over 20 years experience. Over the years helped companies of all shapes and sizes to grow their businesses successfully.

www.virtual-sales.com

[email protected]

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Microsoft Vs Apple Market Share