The old saying about a rising tide lifts all boats seems pertinent even to smartphones. A dramatic rise in demand for smartphones has allowed Android to enter the market yet hasn’t caused Apple to cut its price for the iPhone, writes one analyst Monday.
With demand for smartphones growing at 90 percent per year, the question isn’t how Android will hurt Apple. “The more smartphones you build, the more price you can charge. This is regardless of platform,” according to Asymco’s Horace Dediu.
“The only correlation with pricing power is whether you build smartphones or dumb phones,” he adds. Expanding the number of smartphones is good for Apple. “A world full of smartphone users is a better addressable market for iPhones that one filled with voice products,” Dediu writes. He notes the iPhone’s success has always come in markets preceded by other smartphone makers, such as RIM’s BlackBerry in the U.S. and Nokia’s Symbian platform in Europe.
