Samsung Captures Nearly 95 Percent Of Global Android Smartphone Profits In Q1 2013, LG Comes In Second With 2.5 Percent Share

The global Android smartphone profits advanced to $5.3 billion during the first quarter of 2013 with Samsung (KRX: 005930) dominating the market by capturing 94.7 percent of that profit, according to data released by research firm Strategy Analytics.

The stats revealed that Android smartphones manufactured by Samsung helped the company take home $5.1 billion of the total operating profits generated by the worldwide Android smartphone industry in Q1 2013.

“An efficient supply chain, sleek products and crisp marketing have been among the main drivers of Samsung’s impressive profitability,” Woody Oh, Senior Analyst with Strategy Analytics said in a statement.

The South Korean tech giant was also named as the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer during the first quarter of 2013 by Gartner. The company notched up nearly 31 percent share in the global smartphone sales (selling 64.7 million units) in Q1 2013, which was up from 28 percent registered in the same period in 2012. Samsung led in the overall mobile phones sales category as well, accounting for 24 percent share of the market.

Strategy Analytics stated that the overall smartphone industry’s operating profits reached $12.5 billion worldwide during the first three months of this year with Google’s Android platform accounting for 43 percent share.

The No. 2 spot was occupied by LG with only 2.5 percent share of the global profits, while the remaining 2.7 percent went to “Others.” Although LG delivered a small profit during the quarter, it lacked the volume scale needed to match Samsung’s outsized profits, said Oh.

“Samsung is, for now, the undisputed king of the global Android smartphone industry. We believe Samsung generates more revenue and profit from the Android platform than Google does,” Neil Mawston, Executive Director with Strategy Analytics said.

“Samsung has strong market power and it may use this position to influence the future direction of the Android ecosystem. For example, Samsung could request first or exclusive updates of new software from Android before rival hardware vendors.”

In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google was worried about Samsung’s massive Android market share, fearing that it could make the company "flex its muscle" and renegotiate for more favorable arrangement from Google.

However, that speculation was put to rest by Google's CEO Eric Schmidt, who recently denied that there is any tension between Google and Samsung.

"I can assure you, the press coverage of tension [with Samsung] is not correct,” Schmidt said last month at the D: Dive Into Mobile event in New York.

In addition, the introduction of the “Google Edition” of the Samsung Galaxy S4 running on a stock Android version at Google I/O Wednesday also indicates that there is some level of collaboration between the two companies.