Google Earns $18 Billion Revenue, Ships 1B Androids in 2014
While Apple enjoyed record profits and Samsung inches closer to the red, last quarter for Google was good – but not amazing. According to its most recent financial reports, the company pulled in $18 billion in revenues in the last quarter alone, with $66 billion in revenue for the 2014 calendar year. While those numbers sound pretty good, let’s remember – Google’s $18 billion in revenues is the same figure that Apple earned in actual profit. Google is huge…but Apple is huge-er.
After all was said and done, Google earned only $4.76 billion in actual profit last quarter, as parsed by a report out of TechCrunch. Meanwhile, Google was able to post a gain of $740 million from finalizing its sale of Motorola over to Lenovo. As to what effect that sale will have on Google’s bottom line moving forward remains to be seen.
On the upside for Google, news hit yesterday that over a billion Android-powered smartphones shipped in 2014, and Android accounts for “81 percent of all smartphones last year.” That means that while Google’s earnings and profits this year may be dwarfed by Apple’s, the company still holds the majority of mobile users all over the globe within its ecosystem. As users spend money and time on apps and Google’s services, the eventual gains will be massive. The trick, of course, is making sure that can be turned into revenue and profits.
Furthermore, it’s not a zero-sum game. Google and Apple are fierce competitors, but only in a few spaces. Moreover, both companies, plus Samsung, profited – profit is good! Profit loss is often be seen as a troubling sign of things to come, and for good reason. But until a company posts an actual loss, there isn’t quite as much reason for alarm.
[Sources: Google, TechCrunch]