Are we really to believe that Apple is sitting on its hands letting double the profit pass them by? Seriously?
For the first 6 months after the iPhone 4 was introduced, Apple couldn't make the iPhone 4 fast enough to meet demand. Probably the same thing will happen once the 5th gen iPhone hits the shelves. Don't worry about Apple letting profit pass them by. They harvest ~66% of all the profits in the cell phone industry. Seriously.
I remember hearing just wait till the iPhone 4 and the trends will reverse....Android growth accelerated. Just wait till Verizon gets the iPhone....Android growth still through the roof.
Android
activations are still growing. That doesn't mean that Android sales at Verizon are still growing. In late July Verizon reported earnings for the 2nd quarter of this year. They reported 2.3 million iPhone sales. They didn't say anything about sales of Android phones or any other smartphones. Analysts speculated that they easily sold more iPhones than all other Android models combined. The iPhone killed Android sales growth at Verizon. It didn't kill Android. It stalled its growth. And that was with an 8 month old iPhone 4. We're about to find out what happens when Verizon gets a new iPhone.
Change the rules however you see fit to make yourself feel better. Phone sales have been counted this way for years, but since Apple iOS phones sales are getting pummeled by sales of Android phones, now you want to count every other iOS device in order to pad the numbers. That's certainly your prerogative.
Yes, the cell phone industry has always focused on unit sales numbers. That's why for most of the past 5 yrs. Nokia & RIM (Blackberry) have led in smartphone market share. Being the market share leader didn't help them. Maybe it made them feel better?
It's your prerogative to count all Android phones as a single entity. I can assure you the cell phone makers don't count sales that way. Do you really think Samsung, HTC, Motorola, etc. think they are playing on the same team? Go Android team! All for one and one for all! Bull! Although they may tout their own unit market share numbers, what they really want is profits. Samsung and HTC still make profits, but Motorola, Sony & LG did not make a profit last quarter. Android "winning" doesn't do them any good.
Does it do Google any good? 550,000 activations per day equals ~50 million per quarter. What does Google get from that? They get to pay $billions to develop and maintain Android. They get to pay $12.5 billion for Motorola in an attempt to protect themselves from patent lawsuits. They get maybe $1 billion in ad revenue from mobile devices, but most of that (they recently said 2/3rds when reporting to the Senate) comes from iOS devices. Android is a wide & deep money pit for Google.
So you Android fans are always pumped that Android is "winning" against iPhone. Who exactly is winning? Samsung & HTC now have to pay patent fees to Microsoft for using Android. And both are spending millions to pay lawyers to represent them in multiple lawsuits against Apple. Best of all, they will now have to compete directly against Google once the Motorola deal passes.
Meanwhile, Apple is banking a cool $2+ billion per month in profits from iPhone sales. Profits. Per. Month. Poor, poor Apple. They're such losers.