“The mobile market, everyone agrees, is the technology industry’s future. What’s not so clear is which company is best positioned to thrive in that future,” John Siracusa writes for Hypercritical.
“For smartphones in particular, the traditional metrics are confusing. Android has 70% market share, but Apple is taking 70% of the profit. Google, meanwhile, is not benefiting from Android’s market share dominance as much as Samsung, which recorded $4 billion in profit from its cellphone and telecom business in Q4 2012. In the same quarter, Google made less—$2.89 billion—from all its businesses combined,” Siracusa writes. “And when it comes to selling actual smartphones, the only two companies making any money are Apple and Samsung.”
Siracusa writes, “So who’s winning? When pondering this, I find myself thinking about dependencies. What is each company doing for itself, and in what ways does each company rely on others? I think this balance, much more than profits or market share, is what will determine long-term success. Let’s see how the players stack up.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
[Attribution: Daring Fireball. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]