| Interesting numbers... However those numbers are not everything. What counts is whether customers buy products or not. There are plenty of examples of successful mass products that were sold too cheap. For instance Microsoft's X-Box, they sold it much under price. You might list that under marketing costs. Their strategy however paied off, now they are a big player in the game device market. Of course Google spend lots of money into Android, we don't want to imagine what all this patent crap and marketing costs. Android is however the predominant mobile platform and HTC its biggest vendor. (With reference devices I mean the actual devices that were supposed to be used by developers.) Samsung is without question in a nice position but they are replacable, they are a big brand and they have a lot to loose. HTC appeared out of nowhere and is now one of the biggest players in the smartphone market. Just ask yourself who the real profit makers are. Samsung is doing short-term profit. You know why? Because people don't by Samsung devices, they buy Android devices. It's not Apple vs Samsung vs HTC, it's iOS vs Android. Going back to the actual topic: who cares what processor is inside an Android? Only the CPU manufacturers. The customers and the assemblers just care about software support and performance. |
Nexus devices are the reference devices that were supposed to be used by developers: at the Google I/O conference, each attendee received a Nexus 7, Nexus Q, and Galaxy Nexus (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228585/Google_gives_...). If you have a different opinion of what Android "reference devices" are, then provide them for evaluations by the denizens of Hacker News (of which includes a number of Google employees).
It is not necessary to "ask yourself who the real profit makers are," because the revenue numbers for HTC and Samsung are available to the public. The numbers state that Samsung is alreaduy generating more profit than HTC by a significant margin. Samsung's numbers have been increasing. HTC's numbers have been decreasing. Here are some articles that perfectly summarize the point:
"[HTC] posted its third consecutive drop in profit after cutting its revenue forecast amid competition from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co." (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-06/htc-second-quart...)
"Soaring sales of smartphones lifted Samsung Electronics Co.'s profit to a company record in the first quarter and executives said that a new model hitting dealers next month will fuel its financial results during the second." (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230472330457736...)