Apple dominates Google in global smartphone profits

Apple is dominating Google in the battle for global smartphone operating profit share.

According to the latest data from Strategy Analytics, Apple held 88.7% of global smartphone operating profit share in the fourth quarter of 2014, up from 70.5% in the same quarter in 2013. But Android is heading in the opposite direction, with its share down from 29.5% in Q4 2013 to 11.3% in Q4 2014.

Global smartphone operating profit grew 31% from $US16.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 to $US2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014. Apple iOS accounted for all of that growth and then some. Its global smartphone operating profit grew from $US11.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 to $US18.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Android’s global operating profit halved going from $US4.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 to $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Strategy Analytics said weak profitability from Android’s hardware partners is a concern for Google as smartphone manufacturers cannot make decent profits from the Android ecosystem they may begin to look at alternative platforms like Microsoft, Tizen or Firefox.