Most educated people would look at Apple's profits as a combination of premium pricing of a premium product, and of a world class manufacturing supply chain that maintains low build costs through limited product lines over long production cycles using available cash to leverage lowest component pricing and best manufacturing practices.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Android Tops 50% Share of Smartphone Sales, But Apple Still Dominating Profits
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Most educated people would look at Apple's profits as a combination of premium pricing of a premium product, and of a world class manufacturing supply chain that maintains low build costs through limited product lines over long production cycles using available cash to leverage lowest component pricing and best manufacturing practices.
Android will continue to grow in overall mobile phone market share as Android "smart phones" continue to absorb the dumb phone/non smartphone market.
I think its safe to say that within a few years we'll loose the term 'smartphone' as all phones will be smart. There are very few new 'dumb phones' out there now...with the exception of the Blackberry (I kid, I kid)
Apple's days are numbered. They enjoy profits in part from getting a cut of your cell phone bill each month. The smaller carriers are turning apple away as a result and Android is gaining marketshare exponentially. If I were a new developer I'd think twice about who I'd want to develop for.
I've had the iPhone since day 1, switched to the Thunderbolt, now the iPhone 4s and CAN"T WAIT for the Samsung Nexus!!! Siri's a joke. This is the lamest iPhone update to date.
I've had the iPhone since day 1, switched to the Thunderbolt, now the iPhone 4s and CAN"T WAIT for the Samsung Nexus!!! Siri's a joke. This is the lamest iPhone update to date.
Oh yeah you're undoubtedly correct, but in Google's case, it's imperative. The only way they can maximize profits is to push out Android to as many customers as possible; realistically this can only be achieved by the multi-pillar model. If Google were to condense down to a single pillar model like Apple they would not grow as quickly, and would likely stagnate to a certain market cap. Google's model just has the advantage of inherent market stability through diversity.
I use a lot of google apps therefore always had an eye for Android phones.
Even the latest Galaxy S II and HTC's latest phones haven't satisfied me for both hardware and software reasons.
I'll keep trying, for now the Iphone suits me best by far.
I wouldn't go as far as to say their days are numbered, but I can certainly see them needing to review their strategy within a few years for the iPhone to remain desirable for consumers.
Of course. It was an imperfect example to make a point. Hence the smiley.
I do wonder what Google's actually costs are related to Android outside of the major patent acquisitions that have been published.
Motorola has been losing money lately.
My bet is that Google has made more profits to date from iOS devices than Android. I'd even bet that this will be true for another couple of years.
On a side note this is the only part I don't like about android.
Developing on it you need to work with different resolutions. I've set Desire as the bare minimum for my apps and dropped stuff like wildfire and etc.
Stuff should settle in the next 24 months in my opinion but we will see.
I think its safe to say that within a few years we'll loose the term 'smartphone' as all phones will be smart. There are very few new 'dumb phones' out there now...with the exception of the Blackberry (I kid, I kid)
That's pretty egocentric of you. There are millions upon millions of dumbphones in the world and will continue to be.
The world is made up of many countries that don't even have anything but simple cell service. What good (even if they could afford it) would a smart phone be?
BS. Replace Android with fast food "brand" and you get nonsense just as big as the one here.
There's no indication that Apple gets anything from your cell phone bill each month. They did initially, but that deal was ended with AT&T many years ago, and while we don't know the terms of the new deal, nothing indicates that there is any revenue sharing still going on from the carriers to Apple.
jW
Sure. That "I've used all android phones" you stated above have real crap hardware... rofl.
Yeah, I honestly would only be using 1, maybe 2 android handsets if I could but I need to make sure I get the resolutions right. This is its biggest downfall at the moment, however ICS should hopefully go a long way to help stop these problems.
We do end up with an issue reminiscent of 'Internet Explorer 6' however: People dont upgrade quick enough, so we'll still have to keep developing for multiple resolutions on older Android builds for a few years yet.
----------
It wasn't intended to be egocentric, so apologies if that was the result. I merely ment that most handset manufacturers now consider smartphones to be the way forward. smartphones are now as cheap as 'dumb phones', so being able to afford one is not the issue.
To put this into perspective, its could be looked at the same way as modern video media. The video player was phased out for DVD's. At some point it becomes no longer viable for a manufacturer to continue developing older hardware when they can develop newer hardware and make greater profits.
Smartphones are still usable and useful over slower 2g mobile networks.
I think the numbers you were responding to were Google's revenue vs iPhone profits. Google's costs related to Android were not considered (e.g. $12 billion for Motorola
revenue vs profits is a humiliating comparison, for example, here's some decent sized companies selling products everyone knows and loves have revenues around or less than apple's 14 billion in profit in 2010.
here's a few(looks like 2010 numbers, so apple only made 9.36b, others might have change a little but best I could find easily:
lenovo 14.95b
halliburton 14.65b
RIM 14.34b
British airways 12.64b
kellogs 12.58b
office depot 12.14
dollar general 11.46b
Olympus 10.07b
BJ's wholesale club 9.95b
starbucks 9.88b
what i want to know is how nestle made 36b on 112b revenue in 2010... and wtf, microsoft made 20b on 66b revenue?
Amazon has it listed unlocked for $404. Sure, some of the LIST prices of high end android phones are similar to iPhone prices. But you'd rarely have to pay those prices, they are generally sold quite a bit cheaper. Unlike the iPhone which never goes on sale, there are always deals on the other phones.
And sorry if my response was too whiplash/accusatory.
I could still debate this just because a simple candybar/flip phone is mere dollars in comparison to smart phones. And many people are still choosing a PAYG type plan and will opt (since they are paying outright) for a free/cheap phone they can top up vs a smart phone.
I freely admit I could be wrong - but I *think* dumbphones will have a market for many years still...
While that statement is ridiculous on it's face, it also ignores the fact that, for the most part, it's the carriers that are paying a larger amount for iPhones than similar phones. Not consumers.
Smaller carriers like C-Spire?
And are you kidding on developers? You realize iOS has a much larger installed base than Android, right?
Your comparing apples vs oranges. While your statement may be true it's also misleading. You need to compare computers based upon similar price ranges.
I don't know why you are trying to compare a 299$ pc laptop against a 2000$ model.
But you damn well know that already for both of these points.
Last edited:
lol, so you see google taking 30 percent of the profits in a few years that they take none of now and motorola takes almost none of now and every singe other phone manufacturer shares 35% of right now? I see android and google doing well, but not that well, and I don't really see them doing well with hardware from buying motorola. care to make a wager?