Market Share vs. Profit; Anroid vs. iOS

Android, Apple, Gadgets, Ipad, Iphone, MacBook, Nokia, Samsung, Sony, Tech & Gadgets, Tech News | johnray | November 20, 2011 5:20 pm

Android Wins the Market Share Wars but does it win the Revenue Wars

This is not meant to inflame both iOS and Android fans. This is about presenting a clear picture of what has recently happened to the smartphone industry. Just a few months ago we have been seeing a steep rise in market share by Google’s OS, Android. In fact as the picture below suggests, the gap between the volume of Android’s market shares and the rest the other smartphone OS’s is so far. Just by looking at the market share, one can easily conclude that volume is equal to an insane amount of profit.

Android Now Sits in the King's Throne

Yet, many people have forgotten that market share is only a piece of the whole picture, if not, the whole story. We should always remember that behind the huge success of Android are the “X” number of mobile manufacturers investing in it. To name a few, we have Samsung leading the group, HTC, LG, Motorola,Sony Ericsson, ZTE and more. Now add that with the different type of smartphone models that each of these companies make in a year to cover every facet of the financial spectrum and you’ll see how much volume is being distributed worldwide. The astounding number of Android smartphone in the market today is staggering. If this trend continues then we will soon see an Android phone for almost every person. With that, we would also soon see the possibility of loosing the line between high-end premium Android smartphones and the cheaper versions. Of course these are just my own thoughts. I might eventually be wrong.

However, the question is, does this huge market share also result in a huge marginal return of investment for Android OEMs?

Market Share vs. Profit, which would you prefer?

As you can see despite the fact that iOS holds third spot in market share, Apple still holds that sweet spot between premium products and return of investment without the hassle of trying to produce volumes of different phones every month. Android having many OEMs, profit sharing from their market share can be very tricky. Whilst Apple’s market share profit belongs entirely to Apple.

Points to ponder from the above graphs.

1. The amount of market share does not always translate to marginal profit.

2. The “X” number of Android smartphone manufactures plus the “X” number of phones released every contributed to the number of market share Android now enjoys.

3. While Android is the King, iOS (sort of) runs the Bank.