Apple's new taste for dominance puts iPhone up front

Stan Beer
Sunday, 15 April 2007 22:39

Business IT - Technology

While market watchers and analysts bemoan another delay in the release of Apple's new Mac OS X Leopard because of iPhone commitments, they seem to have forgotten two facts. The first is that Apple has declared it is no longer a computer company and the second is the company's new found taste for dominance.

Although the Mac is a great product, even in its halcyon days it was never able to gain a dominant market share of the personal computing space. The move of the Mac platform to Intel was a master stroke but Apple still has a long hard road to climb if it wants to match it with the likes of Dell, HP, Acer and the other first tier vendors. In all likelihood, the Mac will remain a significant but niche player in a market totally dominated by Microsoft and its loyal band of hardware lackeys.

The position of iPod and iTunes, however, is a totally story. This is a market where Apple is in a totally dominant position and, judging by the recent signals coming out of Cupertino, the company likes the taste of being in a market where it has control.

Needless to say, the iPhone is a very strategic product for Apple. It is more than just an attempt to grab a small piece of a market already dominated by mobile phone giants such as Nokia and Motorola. It is a deliberate strategy to extend its dominance in the portable music and entertainment space into new areas.

Apple knows that it is unlikely to dent the doninance of the mobile phone giants in the near term. However, if it can turn iPod users into iPhone users, as well as grab a modest share of the existing mobile phone market, then it will continue to cement its dominance in the portable music player space, with the bonus of getting a toehold in the totally new area of mobile telecoms.

It should escape nobody's attention that Apple's fortunes turned around so spectacularly due in no small part to the success of iPod and iTunes. What had been a struggling personal computer company with a loyal band of hard core followers was miraculously transformed into the cool champion of the hip young music loving crowd. Many if not most of those hip young music lovers use mobile phones, send emails and surf the web. Many don't have Macs.

Apple knows all too well that its Mac market will suffer little or no harm from a few months delay in Leopard. Some may grumble, a few may delay purchasing a new Mac for the cost of a software upgrade, but none will defect.

The iPhone, however, is a whole new ball game. This is a product for which the world simply cannot wait. Obviously for Apple, a company which has completely matamorphosed into something other than what it was, the choice was crystal clear.