Apple gets 89 percent smartphone profit share, Android falls to 11 percent: Report

Even though Google’s Android enjoys a larger market share , when it comes to the more profitable smartphone side, Apple is well ahead. Research firm Strategy Analytics has released its new numbers showing who made the most profits in the smartphone segment. The overall global smartphone operating profit reached $21.2 billion in Q4 2014, which is 31 percent more compared to $16.2 billion operating profit in Q4 2013.

Now comprehend these numbers: Out of this $21.2 billion, a whopping 88.7 percent which is equal to $18.8 billion belonged to Apple, thanks to the record 74.5 million sales of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Google’s Android, on the other hand, captured a record-low 11 percent of the profit share during the quarter with a mere $2.4 billion operating profit.

This 11 percent profit for Android is well below the 29.5 percent share it had in Q4 of 2013. It means that Android’s operating profit fell by 18.2 percentage points if one were to compare year-on-year for the same quarter. In contrast, Apple’s profit share jumped up from 70.1 percent in Q4 of 2013 to 88.7 percent in Q4 of 2014.

For Google, this should be a cause for concern As Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Android’s weak profitability for its hardware partners will worry Google. If major smartphone manufacturers, like Samsung or Huawei, cannot make decent profits from the Android ecosystem, they may be tempted in the future to look at alternative platforms such as Microsoft, Tizen or Firefox.”

However it has to be acknowledged that profit or not, Android is still the number one OS market and enjoys 81.5 percent of the market share at the end of 2014, while Apple has a market share of 14.8 percent for the same period. Android has come to be a favourite with low-end device manufactures and with the average price of smartphones falling, most new users aren’t too keen on spending a lot of money on their first smartphone.

Where other OS are concerned, from Microsoft’s Windows for Mobile to BlackBerry OS 10 to Tizen or Sailfish or Firefox, nobody has proved to be worthy challenger to the Android problem. Users might not buy a high-end device but they want an Android.

But as the Strategy Analytics numbers show dominating the market in terms of volume hasn’t meant huge profits for Android manufacturers. In contrast, Apple which has managed to churn out high profits (the highest for any company ever, according to its last result) despite launching only two new products (the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus) in the market in 2014.