Winners And Losers; Time For FTC To Investigate Apple -- Apple Has Monopoly On Smartphone Profits -- July 13, 2015

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The Los Angeles Times is reporting: Toyota's next Prius is unlikely to boost sagging hybrid market

The next Toyota Prius will arrive just as hybrids seem to be going out of fashion.
Set to debut this fall, the 2016 version of the groundbreaking green car leads a segment beset by falling gas prices and rising efficiency of conventional gasoline cars.

The fourth-generation Prius, analysts say, will have to be an extraordinary car to match its previous successes, and it's unlikely to breathe new life into the flagging hybrid segment. 

In many ways, the Prius is the hybrid segment. Last year, Toyota sold 207,635 of the three combined Prius models, accounting for 42% of the hybrid market.

It's by far the bestselling hybrid in U.S. history, having sold more than 1.8 million units since its debut as a 2001 model. It has, in recent years, often been the bestselling car of any kind in California. [I believe 2014 was the first year in many years that the Prius dropped to #2 in California; Honda Civic went to #1.]

But Prius sales this year are off 15.8% from 2014, according industry research firm Autodata Corp., a figure that mirrors falling sales for all hybrids.

It's #1 competitor: the Honda Civic.

The Prius: $25,000 to $31,000.
The Honda Civic: "a good bit less" than the Prius according to The Los Angeles Times

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Apple iPhones: 92% Of All Profits On Just 20% Of Sales

Time For The FTC To Investigate 

Monopoly On Smartphone Profits

Yahoo!Finance is reporting: Apple rules smartphone biz.

Apple is dominating the smartphone market. Canaccord Genuity estimated Apple's iPhone took 92% of all profits in the smartphone business on just 20% of sales, in the first quarter. 

Not only that, but teenagers are foregoing new clothes to pay for their iPhones. Clothing stores across the US have announced closures and downsizing.

This was before Microsoft announced it's getting out of the smartphone business (or at least taking another look at its smartphone business).

Would it help if Samsung starting giving their phones away?