[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by holymadness

"Oscillating around 50%" is a cute way of saying declined by 16.6% over the same 12-week period last year. The real problem is your disingenuousness.

Picking just two points to compare is not how you read a graph. And do you actually have a reason to pick these two points to compare?

Originally Posted by holymadness

So what lunch is Android supposed to be eating if not profits?

Market share.

Originally Posted by holymadness

Clearly you've never owned or run a business, since you seem to think that the only cost of producing a good is the cost of its components and assembly. This distortion is trotted out with unerring reliability in these discussions and only demonstrates how much bad faith exists on the side of those who perpetuate it.

I didn't say that the only cost of producing a good is the cost of its components and assembly. But Apple does make money directly from the sale of iphones while Google does not.

Originally Posted by holymadness

The US is currently the most important smartphone market in the world. I'd say it more than contributes to the general fizzling out of the OP's thesis.

Actually the fact that the US market trends are not a measure of the global market show that the importance of the US market is exaggerated.

Originally Posted by murraypaul

<pedant>
Google do not charge for the base Android OS.
Google do charge for access to the Google Android apps, including Google Play, as well as requiring a contract which may restrict what other apps/features the manufacturer can include.
</pedant>

I wasn't including the profits made from the app stores of each company, because that would be even more difficult to compare.

Originally Posted by 5thWiggle

[Tongue-in-cheek][...]
[/Tongue-in-cheek]

Seriously, you can't compare the sale price of hardware + OS vs manufacturing cost to the fact that an OS is initially free but makes money on use. They don't equate.

Apple also makes money from their app store, but as I said, the companies have different mindsets when it comes to profit. My point was that global profit is not a way to measure market share.