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According to Strategy Analytics, Android has claimed 80 percent of the global market share, especially in terms of the volume of smartphones shipped worldwide. But when it comes to actual profits, it appears that Apple is taking the lion's share.
Strategy Analytics reported that for the final quarter of 2014, Apple has taken 89 percent of all smartphone profits. That percentage is equal to $18.8 billion. As for Android's share of the smartphone profits -- it only has 11 percent, which is equivalent to $2.4 billion.
Android's percentage may not look impressive, but compared to Microsoft, BlackBerry, and Firefox (which appeared to have made no profits at all during the recently concluded quarter), 11 percent is definitely better than nothing at all.
Strategy Analytics examines the profits generated by the phone makers themselves out of selling handsets. It does not include profits generated from services, software (apps, games), and advertising. Looking at the bigger picture, profits for the smartphone-making business is up. As a matter of fact, Strategy Analytics's data reveals that smartphone profits have increased to 31.4 percent compared to the same quarter one year ago.
Among Android original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Strategy Analytics is saying that Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi are the three best performing players. Samsung is still leading with more than half of the share of all Android profits. But competition is slowly gaining ground. Back in 2013, the South Korean company held a 95 percent share of all Android profits. This year, Chinese phone makers like Huawei and Xiaomi are beginning to eat away at Samsung's percentages.
But the undisputed king of the profits of the last quarter is definitely Apple. This should not be that surprising. The company after all had achieved record sales with the release of its newest flagship smartphones, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.
It is interesting to note, however, that Apple is doing really quite well despite the growth of emerging markets. In these sectors, people are just getting into the habit of buying smartphones, and it appears that they are mostly going for devices that come with low prices. This explains why Chinese phone makers are really generating lots of revenues in these areas, due to their inexpensive but feature-heavy smartphone offerings.
But what about Apple? As a phone maker known for offering devices with premium prices, it is not really lording it over in emerging markets. So how is it making lots of profits? The answer is simple: Apple is simply killing it really well in places where it is strong, i.e. the United States and China, places where both the size of the consumer base and the purchasing power of the consumers is really, really good.
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