The mobile train has left the Windows 8 platform behind

“According to Canaccord Genuity, Apple took in 69% of the handset (all mobile phones, not just smartphones) profits in 2012. Samsung took in 34%, HTC accounted for 1%, BlackBerry and LG broke even, Motorola and Sony Ericsson both acounted for minus 1 percent and Nokia brought up the rear with a negative 2 percent of the industry profits,” John Kirk writes for TechPinions.

“No one not named Apple or Samsung is making any meaningful profits from the handset sector. Considering that both Microsoft and Google’s Android are based on a licensing model, this is more than a little shocking. Licensing is supposed to encourage variety among hardware manufacturers,” Kirk writes. “Clearly, that is not happening.”

Kirk writes, “Pundits like to predict the imminent demise of iOS, but those profit numbers say just the opposite. And even as Android’s market share has increased, iOS’s profit share has increased too. Market share is no guarantor of profits. This should be self-evident. But apparently, it’s not. The big losers here are Palm, Nokia, BlackBerry and Microsoft. Palm is gone and Nokia and Blackberry’s market shares and profits have fallen off a cliff. And Microsoft? After three years of flailing, Microsoft’s Windows 7 is dead and Windows 8 phone manufacturers are all in the red… The mobile ‘train’ has left the station and companies like HP, Lenovo, Dell and Microsoft are standing on the Windows 8 platform, watching it pull away.”

Much more in the full article – recommended – here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dominick P.” for the heads up.]

Related articles:
Apple dominates mobile phone makers with 72% profit share worldwide in Q412 – February 6, 2013
comScore: Apple #1 smartphone maker in U.S. with 36.3% market share – February 6, 2013
Canalys: Apple continues reign as #1 PC maker; grabbed over 20% share of market for first time in Q412 – February 6, 2013
Apple’s iPad dominates tablets with 81% Web usage share; Amazon Kindle Fire distant 2nd with 7.7% – February 6, 2013

43 Comments

    1. But . . . But . . . But . . . Market share? Android will eat iOS for breakfast? Android is so much better? You can’t patent round corners? Samsung? Remember Apple/Microsoft battle? Apple is a niche market? Apple products are way too expensive?

      How can Apple make so much money?

  1. I wouldn’t be so sure about that. A lot can happen in a couple of years. Apple isn’t showing enough change to keep it’s dominance and I’m willing to bet money that in 2-3 years we could see a completely different picture in the mobile hand set landscape. One where Apple and Android have given up significant market share to Windows Phone. I’m in the wireless sales industry and the WP 8 is growing much more in the last 3 months than ever. It’s now where near iPhone sales, but there’s a lot of interest in it with users that are coming due for upgrades.

    1. So you’re a salesman at Verizon or what? And that makes you an expert how?

      Windows is dying, not Apple. As long as Apple keeps innovating, they will remain dominant. I have a feeling that what Apple has coming down the pipeline is going to blow everyone away.

      1. Yes I must agree. Just because you sell the devices doesn’t by any means make you a expert. As a mater of fact every time I go in to a Verizon store I am floored by the smoke you blow up these poor clueless Peoples asses. More times then not flat out lies.

        1. And these percents in spite of Verison salespeople having a campaign to talk people out of buying an iPhone. Has happened in 4 stores in different cities and a State Fair Kiosk that I know of 2 experiences happened to our family and 3 to others. In one case they succeeded in selling the parent an Android (daughter was angry about that). The State Fair Verision booth sales guy was the rudest, just slamming Apple viciously. Apple’s leading in spite of all this. Don’t know if the same thing happens with AT&T or Sprint salespeople.

    2. No, I don’t work for Verizon or any other corp retailer. I work for and Manage several Target Mobile stores and I sell T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. I never said I was an expert. Just someone who see’s a lot of different phones and I have all three platforms that I carry and use. I worked for Apple as an ASC for over 7 years and I have a bit more experience with Apple than most of you all I’d dare to reckon. I see Apple as a company that has slowed way down in it’s innovation and just making improvements. Yeah they have the lions share of the profits and pretty significant chunk of the phone OS market. I think the story has not been written by a long shot. Apple still needs to stay innovative and come out with something that really get’s it’s place back as the number one innovator. Until they can do that. It’s anyone game.

    3. Apple has the chance to bury Window but so does Android.
      What’s keeping Android from going FULL OS? Why not complete the Android ecosystem? And Apple is restricting full/Greater functionality on an IPAD, which is needed to get IPAD in the hands of enterprise. My god, how stupid. Ok, back to finishing my taxes on my limited version of Quickbooks PRO for Mac, as compared to the PC version, after all these years.

  2. Well, I for one think that iOS needs the competition.

    … too bad it’s in the form of Evil Google and Bitter Former Monopolist Microsoft.

    Besides, folks, the marathon has just begun. Apple had better take market entrants seriously, because it has very little hope of maintaining BOTH its profit margin AND its market share. Right now, Apple is letting its market share slip, and I’d not be so certain that’s a good policy.

    1. Apple always requires competition.

      So what’s Google’s problem? Where’s the competition? Android? PFTH! Someone has to DARE to actually make something new and innovative. Google is barely trying. Samsung never gave a rat’s. Parasitism is all they know.

    1. We did, but a crystal ball, the Tarot, or rabid fanboyism weren’t required for this one. The tipoff was that all of the, what used to be Microshaft apologists viciously trashed the product even before release. After release they merely savaged it like junkyard dogs.

  3. Apple doesn’t care about market share. They care about market position. As long as they can make a ton of money making premium products that people love, they will continue to thrive.

    Apple will defend the high end of the market but they will let others duke it out in a race to the bottom.

  4. ok, i a not a math wiz, but 69, plus 34, plus 1 makes 104. so either i am not understanding basic math (a condition i am willing to admit), or something about these numbers does not add up. i am pretty sure that when dealing with percentages, the number should never total more than 100%. i welcome all students of the “new math” to enlighten me.

    1. Apple took in 69% of the handset (all mobile phones, not just smartphones) profits in 2012. Samsung took in 34%, HTC accounted for 1%, BlackBerry and LG broke even, Motorola and Sony Ericsson both acounted for minus 1 percent and Nokia brought up the rear with a negative 2 percent of the industry profits,”

      69 + 34 + 1 – 1 – 1 – 2 = 100%

        1. I hever seen a pie slice like that before. What you are saying is that Apple took 69% of the profits AND losses. I cannot believe that is a valid statistic.

  5. So let me summarize… Windows 8 is not a very good mobile platform. Ironic given that it is a terrible desktop platform… Where people would say the desktop flaws are because it is built to be a mobile platform. God love Ballmer.

    1. @Chas

      “Stephenson’s Rocket”…Now there’s a reference that’s entirely apt with bonus points for something I haven’t heard for a very long time. Congratulations!

  6. To be fair not everyone can afford an iPad or Macs. Microsoft is a brand those consumers can go to for a tablet experience……it may not be all that great but those consumer need a product that can be like the iPad.

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