Android smartphone profits fall to a new low as Apple's iOS dominates
Apple iPhone owners, listen up. We’ve got some news that you can pass on to your Android friends to ruin their day.
Between October and December, Apple’s iPhone took a record 89 percent of smartphone operating profits worldwide. This compared to Android’s 11.3 percent, which is a record-low. These are the results of a new Strategy Analytics survey released on Thursday, and first posted by AppleInsider.
For the fourth quarter of 2014, smartphone operating profits reached $21 billion, up 31 percent year over year. Of that, $18.8 billion was collected by Apple, while Android-based suppliers took the rest, $2.4 billion. Other smartphone vendors didn’t turn in any operating profit during the holiday quarter, including Microsoft and BlackBerry.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, iOS and the iPhone represented 71 percent of all smartphone profits, or $11.4 billion. Android’s take at the time was 30 percent or $4.8 billion.
Last month, Apple announced they had sold a record 74.5 million iPhones during the holiday quarter. At the same time, the iPhone’s market share in the United States overtook Android for the first time since 2012.
These numbers should certainly make iPhone users smile. Android smartphone owners love to discuss market share. In the end, however, it’s the iPhone that continues to make most of the money. This reality could certainly hurt Google’s Android in the long-term.
As Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, concludes:
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.
See also: The Apple Watch is featured in a multi-page ad spread in the March edition of Vogue magazine, You’ll probably be able to wear an Apple Watch in the shower, but it might not be recommended, and Apple is planning some major changes to Genius Bar appointments.
