Steve Jobs scored a posthumous victory Wednesday. Apple shareholders may not have.
Adobe said it would stop developing its Flash software for mobile devices. Mr. Jobs had famously railed against the software and refused to support it on his company's iPhone and iPad. Apple has long-supported an open standard called HTML5, which Adobe says it will now support.
Apple investors, however, should be careful of what Mr. Jobs wished for. The rise of HTML5 is a double-edged sword. While Apple notes that the standard empowers Web designers, it also empowers Apple's mobile rivals.
One reason Apple can charge a premium for its mobile devices is the huge number of apps that are developed for them. There are over 500,000 available for Apple's mobile operating system, compared with over 300,000 for Google's and just 35,000 for Microsoft's. It can be expensive to develop apps for multiple mobile platforms, so developers often start with the most popular ones.
While HTML5 is still evolving, it should enable many developers to create just one app that works with multiple mobile platforms and that can be downloaded via the Web instead of proprietary app stores. In other words, such "webapps" would be portable across mobile devices, reducing Apple's ability to differentiate its devices. Developers such as the Financial Times and Amazon.com have found a way around Apple's costly app store with webapps, notes IDC analyst Al Hilwa.
Apps that run directly on mobile devices do have advantages over HTML5 apps running on mobile Web browsers. They have better graphics, important for games, and can access extra functions on the mobile device, including the camera.
The risk for Apple is that less differentiated products mean lower margins. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi notes PC gross margins once topped 30%. But after being standardized by the Windows operating system and Intel chips, they have fallen to 13%-15%. The crash of Flash isn't such an extreme event, but could be a small step on the way.
Source : WSJ
Adobe said it would stop developing its Flash software for mobile devices. Mr. Jobs had famously railed against the software and refused to support it on his company's iPhone and iPad. Apple has long-supported an open standard called HTML5, which Adobe says it will now support.
Apple investors, however, should be careful of what Mr. Jobs wished for. The rise of HTML5 is a double-edged sword. While Apple notes that the standard empowers Web designers, it also empowers Apple's mobile rivals.
One reason Apple can charge a premium for its mobile devices is the huge number of apps that are developed for them. There are over 500,000 available for Apple's mobile operating system, compared with over 300,000 for Google's and just 35,000 for Microsoft's. It can be expensive to develop apps for multiple mobile platforms, so developers often start with the most popular ones.
While HTML5 is still evolving, it should enable many developers to create just one app that works with multiple mobile platforms and that can be downloaded via the Web instead of proprietary app stores. In other words, such "webapps" would be portable across mobile devices, reducing Apple's ability to differentiate its devices. Developers such as the Financial Times and Amazon.com have found a way around Apple's costly app store with webapps, notes IDC analyst Al Hilwa.
Apps that run directly on mobile devices do have advantages over HTML5 apps running on mobile Web browsers. They have better graphics, important for games, and can access extra functions on the mobile device, including the camera.
The risk for Apple is that less differentiated products mean lower margins. Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi notes PC gross margins once topped 30%. But after being standardized by the Windows operating system and Intel chips, they have fallen to 13%-15%. The crash of Flash isn't such an extreme event, but could be a small step on the way.
Source : WSJ
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.