Apple dropped iPhone 5s and (Unapologetic-ally plastic) iPhone 5c on the world last weekend and like every year posted record sales. Apple has managed bigger and bigger opening weekend sales number every successive year with every successive iPhone. This year Apple announced a record 9 Million iPhone sales (both 5s and 5c). This is up from a record 5 million last year posted by the iPhone 5. The breakup of iPhone 5s and 5c was not disclosed. Speculation is people bought 5s over 5c by 3 to 1 margin. Lets conservatively assume 5s sold somewhere around 6 to 7 million devices and 5c sold about 2 – 3 million.

These are impressive numbers given sales are over a span of 3 days. Which leads us into the discussion how no single Android flagship comes close to achieving such sales. But is the comparisons fair?

Apple’s vertically integrated business model is so vastly different from Android distributed model that no Android Flagship will ever achieve such numbers (Not any time soon at least). To really understand this we need to understand the differences in these two mobile ecosystems.

Apple every year releases one new iPhone (until this year) which is either a complete refresh or a spec refresh. This is accompanied by a new version of iOS. Apple maintains a monopoly over iOS. It doesn’t license it to other manufacturers to ship devices with. Also the ecosystem of services (iTunes for media, Appstore for apps) along with iMessage, iCloud, Siri are all iOS exclusive which in turn is Apple exclusive. This leaves users who are invested in the iOS ecosystem tied up with Apple hardware. I am not criticizing Apples (Steve Jobs) philosophy of providing a complete end to end experience but merely pointing out the fact that an iOS user will buy an iPhone and nothing else. In that sense I say Apple doesn’t really compete with any smartphone manufacturer. If you don’t like the iPhone’s 4″ form factor, tough luck because that’s all you got. Apple has a one size fits all philosophy, be it a 16 yr old school girl or a 50 yr old businessman you have the same iPhone. In the end iOS will keep you tied down to Apple hardware.

Google Android on the other hand came along in 2009 with a very different idea of how they would play the Smartphone game . Their idea was an Open Source Operating system distributed free of charge to OEM’s to make and ship devices with. Every Android device will have an app ecosystem (Google PlayStore) and services provided by Google. In essence Google will handle the Android software development and Services ecosystem and OEM will handle the hardware. This allows various OEM’s to enter the smartphone market without having to spend significant time, money and resources developing software. Apart from this the open source nature of Android along with friendly licensing allows OEM’s to make changes to the platform according to their needs. What this offers consumers is a wide range of devices. If you have any specific need you can be assured, more often than not, there will be a device specifically meant for that.

With this fragmentation of hardware targeting users with different needs, it also fragments sales. Android has many major players competing for consumer dollars. Sony, HTC, Motorola, Samsung among many many others. These companies put out new phones every year for various segments from low end to the very high end.

Lets go through the Android release calender of high end devices.

HTC updates in One flagship once every Years. (Has sold approx. 10 million devices since launch)

Samsung has its very successful Galaxy S and Galaxy Note line of phones which are refreshed every year ( Galaxy S4 sold 10 million devices in the first month of launch and Note 2 has sold 30 million devices till date)

Sony With its Xperia line of phones ( Xperia line of phones sold about 10 million devices )

LG announces its flagship phone every year.

Google Nexus Phone comes out once every year

Some other major players are Motorola and ASUS.

Apart from these you have strong regional players like MicroMax (2nd largest Android phone manufacturer in India) and multitude of Chinese manufacturers (Apple in China is 6th in terms of sales numbers) that are fighting for attention in the android space. Apart from annual flagships there are mid and low end devices that further fragment the landscape.

Now its reached a point where you are always a month or 2 away from a high end android device announcement. This offers users a wide variety of devices all running Android.

On the other end of the spectrum then is Apple with its once a year device that run iOS. So if you are part of the iOS ecosystem you really don’t have a choice but to pick up an apple iPhone whether you like it or not. I have had arguments with people where I keep reiterating the fact that in a parallel universe where Apple was licensing iOS to other OEM’s to ship iOS devices, iPhone sales would be no where near its current levels. The reason why apple can pull off the slow pace of innovation (both software and hardware (a ridiculous 4″ display) ) is because of the fact that iOS is iPhone exclusive.

The latest global market share of Android vs iOS is about a 80% (Android) to a 13% (iOS) . This in itself is a testament to sales. Even if we split android market share to reflect only high end devices i would argue it will vastly out number the iPhone. The argument I hear is that its unfair to compare marketshare of 3 iPhone’s, available at anytime, with a multitude of high end android devices. I would flip that argument around and say that its unfair to compare sales numbers of the only iOS device (a new iPhone) to any single Android Flagship which competes with number of high end devices in the Android space and then the iPhone.

Author: Puneet Rajput

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