After checking out that report on what it costs Samsung to make the Galaxy S7 you’re thinking about taking home, we’ve got smartphone sales on the mind – and specifically, how much profit these phone-makers take home every time they sell a handset. Sometimes, it’s no surprise who’s making the big bucks: look no further than Apple’s financial reports and you’ll see that building the iPhone has been practically a gold mine for the company. But now we’re looking at some data that investigates average device profit across a number of manufacturers, and the company that’s selling the most profitable Android phones may come as a bit of a shock: it’s Sony.

Across its whole lineup, Sony manages to bring in $26.17 of pure profit for each phone it sells. And while Samsung may be the biggest Android OEM around, and sells over ten times as many phones as Sony, its average profit is just $23.29 per handset.

The key factor here is almost certainly device pricing. While Samsung may have flagships like the Galaxy S7 that deliver big profits (even with hardware that ain’t cheap to produce), profit margins get thinner as you start moving into the more budget-priced side of the spectrum. So when shoppers go out and pick themselves up a Samsung Galaxy Prevail 2 for $60 or something, there’s just not much room to turn a profit – even with lower-end hardware.

Sony, by contrast, has a much higher ratio of higher-priced to lower-priced phone sales – such that its average smartphone sells for $422, or almost double Samsung’s average $225. Focusing to a greater extent on more expensive handsets lets Sony make more from each sale – even if it’s selling fewer phones, total.

Source: The Overspill
Via: Xperia Blog