Not many times does it happen that a software giant like Google is worried. Even fewer are the chances that it is worried by a consumer electronics manufacturer, rather than a software giant like Microsoft. That would be a good way to showcase the dominance that the South Korean conglomerate, Samsung has shown in the global market. Google has now taken notice of the company’s rise mainly through carefully analyzing the Android mobile platform and the market it holds. Google is the inventor of the Android operating system and all other OEMs pledge their allegiance to Google, including Samsung. But it is Samsung that makes 95% of all the profit generated through sales of Android smart phones.
2013 showed that the Android mobile market was dominated by Samsung, making a profit of $5.1 billion. That accounts to 95% of the total profit generated by Android manufacturers, leaving behind $200 million for the remaining OEMs to fight for. Google does not like the current scenario of things because the intention with which it had planned the operating system was counting on the fact that Google would promote healthy competition amongst various hardware manufacturers, which would eventually leave Google in pseudo-control of the whole market. But this sheer monopoly of the Android market by Samsung has caught even Google by surprise and a few people have even claimed that because of Samsung’s dominance, it could eventually dictate how Google should move ahead with the Android operating system in the days to come.
Google didn’t really give Samsung a thought until 2011 when it acquired Motorola to ensure that it also proved itself as a very good hardware manufacturer and to try and keep in check the ever growing presence of the South Korean giant. However, Google really crossed the line when it decided yesterday to sell the Galaxy S IV with pure vanilla Android even though it has the Nexus to do the same. Samsung has driven Google to the extent that Google now thinks its own handsets are just not good enough. This may be a brilliant play by Samsung but it is left to everyone else to ponder who the actual force is to take the Android platform into the future. But as it stands now, its Samsung -1 Google -0.
