Judging from first quarter results this year, Google's Android is not a guaranteed sure thing. On one hand, South Korean electronics giant Samsung just announced a healthy profit for Q1 2012, but rival HTC is feeling the blues with a 70 drop in profit from last year.
AppleInsider is reporting that Samsung has released estimates for the company's first quarter earnings on Friday, and things are looking very up -- as in "record profit of $5.1 billion from $39.8 billion in sales" kind of up. That makes for a near 100 percent jump in profits year over year and a 20 percent increase in revenue.
One analyst went on the record with Reuters claiming the new record was largely due to sales of Samsung's Galaxy Note, which is either a large smartphone or a small tablet, depending on who you ask.
"Higher-than-expected shipments of the Galaxy Note seem to have given an upside to earnings," explains Hana Daetoo analyst Lee Ka-keun. "Note sales will increase further in the second quarter, and handset profit will grow despite a rise in marketing costs related to the London Olympics."
And that's just the first quarter of 2012 -- Lee notes that things will heat up as the year rolls out, with Samsung introducing a new Galaxy S handset and Apple releasing its annual iPhone update, when both companies "will engage in a full-fledged war."
On the flip side of the Android coin, BGR is reporting HTC has also released unaudited earnings for the first quarter and they couldn't be much different from Samsung. The Taiwan-based handset maker's revenue is down 35 percent, with profit falling a whopping 70 percent year-on-year.
HTC recently released the new One series of Android-based smartphones, an attempt to simplify the company's lineup, which has become nearly as fragmented as the Android OS platform itself. HTC and Sprint announced the new EVO 4G LTE this week which arrives in May -- well before Sprint actually rolls out an LTE network.
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