I'm not convinced Apple cares about market share in the smartphone war. They are still destroying the competition when it comes to profit and in their world, that's what matters. Google's game with Android is to get it into the hands of as many people as possible.

Apple's goals differ from the idea of getting as many users as people. The company seems to be more focused on getting a number of people who will almost absolutely buy their brand. That's their strength imo. How many businesses can boast of guaranteed lines outside their stores for hours when launching a product? (Bear in mind that lining up is very irrational for a lot of those who spend hours there seeing as they can often grab it online or from a carrier store directly. )

They operate by a follow the money mindset and it works excellently for them. Get people to love your product - this loyal customer we seek in the startup world - and you're in very good hands.

Kudos to them for their work

That number is old, in the most recent quarter Apple just rose to be the number 1 OEM in China, and took 55% marketshare in Japan, even took 30% marketshare in S.Korea, Samsung's home turf.

Sure, globally Android will remain larger, but the trend is stabilizing if not reversing a little for now.

That's incorrect:

As of the end of Q3 2014, Android was the most popular operating system, with a 84.4% market share, followed by iOS with 11.7%

Why bother comparing iOS to Android as a measure of success? If you do, you should only compare products in the same price range. Apple products are a premium and will never have majority market share of small margin price range.

Also Samsung's phone business is doing poorly financially.

I think much of that 70% number is downmarket. Apple's competition is primarily Samsung, as well as the premium devices offered by Motorola, HTC, etc. (Though to be fair, I wonder how much of Apple's 30% is from older phones costing $99 or less with contract)

> I think much of that 70% number is downmarket.

Yes, it is. Hence the huge margins gap.

> Apple's competition is primarily Samsung, as well as the premium devices offered by Motorola, HTC, etc. (Though to be fair, I wonder how much of Apple's 30% is from older phones costing $99 or less with contract)

No idea, that would be interesting to figure out.

Samsung have been loosing money on their smartphones divisions, haven't they?

I went iPhone -> Android -> iPhone

For the same reasons I can't imagine myself using Windows again, I can't see myself using android in the near future.

Same here. The larger iPhone got me to switch back. After using Android for the past 2 years, I had forgotten just how polished the iPhone is along with all the apps on the phone.

Admittedly if Google had released a Nexus 5+ at the same $350 price I probably would have stuck with Android. No way I was going to pay a premium price for any of the Android phones I looked at though.

Do Apple investors care at all about market share if the lion's share of profits are going to them?

I don't know about investors, but Apple clearly doesn't care about market share or they'd be selling under $100 iPhones.

Or the mythical $300 laptop that they had to make or the company would fold for... like a decade now.