According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits.

We estimate the global Android smartphone industry generated total operating profits of US$5.3 billion during Q1 2013. The Android platform accounted for 43 percent share of the entire smartphone industry’s operating profits, which reached US$12.5 billion worldwide in the first quarter of this year.

We estimate Samsung’s Android smartphone shipments generated US$5.1 billion of operating profit worldwide in Q1 2013. Samsung captured a huge 95 percent share of all Android smartphone industry profits. An efficient supply chain, sleek products and crisp marketing have been among the main drivers of Samsung’s impressive profitability. LG followed in second place and took 3 percent global profit share. LG delivered a small profit during the quarter, but it currently lacks the volume scale needed to match Samsung’s outsized profits.

Samsung is, for now, the undisputed king of the global Android smartphone industry. We believe Samsung generates more revenue and profit from the Android platform than Google does. Samsung has strong market power and it may use this position to influence the future direction of the Android ecosystem. For example, Samsung could request first or exclusive updates of new software from Android before rival hardware vendors.

Exhibit 1: Global Android Smartphone Profit Share in Q1 2013 [1]

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, smartphone sales volumes will surge +56% in Africa Middle East this year. The rate of growth in Africa is almost two times higher than the global average. Growth will be driven by first-time buyers and 2G handset upgraders in major countries such as Nigeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. More details can be viewed by clients in this published report, which forecasts worldwide smartphone sales for 88 countries globally, including Brazil, Spain, Russia and others.

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, smartphone sales volumes will surge +69% in India this year. The rate of growth in India is two times higher than the global average. Growth will be driven by a wave of low-cost Android and Microsoft models for prepaid users from companies like Samsung, Micromax and Nokia. More details can be viewed by clients in this published report, which forecasts worldwide smartphone sales for 88 countries globally, including India, China, US and others.

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, global smartphone sales will grow by +33% in 2013. Asia Pacific will remain the largest region, accounting for half of global smartphone sales in 2013. The two largest countries by far in 2013 will be the USA and China. This published report, available to clients, forecasts global smartphone sales, for 88 countries worldwide, from 2007 to 2017. Almost every major country worldwide is covered, including United States, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. This report can be used by operators, software developers, content developers, handset vendors, component makers, car manufacturers and other stakeholders to determine the size and growth rate of the huge global smartphone market.

Andy Rubin, the boss and creator of the dominant global smartphone operating system, has stepped down from running Android in order pursue other avenues within Google, stressing “I’m an entrepreneur at heart.” Android was bought as a start-up by Google back in 2005, with Rubin kept in charge, and he spent the next eight years getting Android to the point it’s at now. But as he has said himself, Rubin is a product development guy rather than an operations guy, and he seems to be keen to get stuck into something new, maybe at Google’s mythical X Lab together with Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who also seems to prefer inventing to running things.

In the short term this should have little bearing on Android, which after all is also looked after by the Open Handset Alliance.  Rubin’s shoes are being filled by Sundar Pichai, who already runs the Chrome browser and Google Apps web applications arms of Google, so he is a steady pair of hands. But in the longer term, Rubin’s departure could well coincide with the need for Google reassess what its strategic aims are for Android. It’s got more installed base than Google could possibly have wished for, but effectively capitalising on that installed base is another matter.

Android so far has existed mainly to compete with Apple, but Chrome and Google Apps are more targeted at Microsoft products such as Internet Explorer and Office. Apple has its desktop and mobile operating systems on a convergent path, while Microsoft has made its intentions clear by shoe-horning the Metro UI on top of the latest version of Windows. Google has responded by ramping up its Chromebook operations, but it seems inevitable now that Android and Chrome OS will also merge in the not too distant future. With a unified OS across all devices - mobile, tablet, PC, TV, console, car, etc, choosing a platform looks set to be one of the biggest lifestyle choices a consumer can make. By replacing Rubin with Pichai Google is positioning itself for the next phase of the platform wars.

Samsung unveiled its new flagship smartphone model, the Galaxy S4, at Radio City in New York, US, on March 14th, 2013. The S4 is an attractive model with advanced software and rich services. We expect the S4 to be a popular choice for consumers and carriers worldwide. However, Samsung rarely mentioned Google or Google services during its official presentations at the New York event, and we believe this marks a notable change in Samsung’s long-term smartphone strategy.The full report, Samsung Galaxy S4 Impresses, but Google is Sidelined, available to the clients of our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS), will give you the impressions and implications that we identified from the Galaxy S4 when it comes to the relations of Samsung and Google.

According to our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, Microsoft Windows Phone overtook BlackBerry OS to become the third largest smartphone platform in the influential United States market during Q4 2012. It was the first time Microsoft has surpassed Blackberry since 2006. Meanwhile, Android lost share in annual terms in the US for the first time ever. Are we now at “peak Android”? More analysis can be downloaded by clients here.

According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) service, global smartphone shipments grew 38 percent annually to reach 217 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012. Android and Apple iOS together accounted for a record 92 percent share of all smartphones shipped worldwide.<

Global smartphone shipments grew 38 percent annually from 157.0 million units in Q4 2011 to 217.0 million in Q4 2012. Global smartphone shipments for the full year reached a record 700.1 million units in 2012, increasing robustly from 490.5 million units in 2011. Global shipment growth slowed from 64 percent in 2011 to 43 percent in 2012 as penetration of smartphones began to mature in developed regions such as North America and Western Europe.

We estimate 152.1 million Android smartphones were shipped globally in Q4 2012, nearly doubling from 80.6 million units in Q4 2011. Android’s share of the global smartphone market has surged from 51 percent to 70 percent over the past year, crushing Symbian, Bada and other platforms in its wake. Almost half-a-billion Android smartphones were shipped in total worldwide during 2012. Android is clearly the undisputed volume leader of the smartphone industry at the present time. Android’s challenge for 2013 will be to defend its leadership, not only against Apple, but also against an emerging wave of hungry challengers that includes Microsoft, Blackberry, Firefox and Tizen.

Apple grew 29 percent annually and shipped 47.8 million smartphones worldwide for 22 percent marketshare in Q4 2012, dipping slightly from 24 percent a year earlier. Combined together, Apple and Android accounted for a record 92 percent share of all smartphones shipped globally in the fourth quarter of 2012. The worldwide smartphone industry has effectively become a duopoly as consumer demand has polarized around mass-market Android models and premium Apple designs.

Exhibit 1: Global Smartphone Operating System Shipments and Market Share in Q4 2012 [1]

Chinese search giant Baidu and France Telecom’s Orange are teaming to launch a data-efficient browser for low-cost smartphone users in Africa. Both players launched a co-branded version of Baidu's browser on Orange’s Egyptian operator MobiNil. The browser is a pre-installed app on carrier-sold Android-powered smartphones. It is expected that Baidu and Orange will challenge Google’s market share due to the growing smartphone adoption in the region.

The move is also quite equivalent to the impending launch of the low-cost Firefox OS mobile platform in Brazil, which is also the product of a collaboration between a browser company - Mozilla - and a global mobile operator - Telefónica.

Subscribers to Strategy Analytics’ Wireless Smartphone Strategies (WSS) services can access detailed country-level and platform-level market data on all the major African markets from this report: Global Smartphone User Base Forecast by OS for 88 Countries: 2007-2017, and can find a detailed insight into Firefox OS and the market potential for browser-based platforms in general in this report: Telefónica, Firefox & ZTE Take HTML5 Phones to the Masses.