It’s been an ongoing narrative in 2015 that many in the tech industry are afraid to acknowledge, but sadly it’s becoming more of an inevitable fact with each passing quarter. Profits for premium Android smartphones are falling, so much so that the brands that we once loved and lauded are now scraping together what little they have to try and keep their loyal fanbases happy. Prime examples of this are HTC and Sony, whose mobile divisions are doing so badly that they have had to lay off large parts of their company (HTC) or continuously copy+paste designs year after year (Sony). This has been true even for the larger manufacturers, Samsung and LG, who have seen profits dip despite critical success of their 2015 flagship devices. So what exactly is happening?
Well, according to the maths done on financial reports in Q2, Samsung is doing the best of all Android manufacturers, pulling in about $33 USD per device sold – that sounds almost laughable compared to what Apple is pulling in for each iPhone sold (~$185 USD), however it is one of the only manufacturers making any kind of profit per device. Whether this means the flagship Android smartphone is endangered remains to be seen, but it’s obvious that there could be a shift in strategy for many manufacturers in the not too distant future.
What do you think about premium Android smartphones and their falling profits? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: The Overspill via TalkAndroid
