Even though Samsung is the one making most money from Android, things will be moving in Google’s favor in the next few years. The search giant pretty much controls the platform and sooner or later, it will be the one making most of the money.
According to a Barron’s report, Google may generate $1.3 billion from Android apps in 2013. The figure was derived from the total number of Android devices (900 million), and an expected average revenue per user (ARPU) at around $4.59. This in turn brings total Google Play revenues to $4.2 billion, of which Google takes a 30% cut for the mentioned figure of $1.3 billion, before hosting and management costs.
Going forward, Google Play revenues will reach at least $17 billion, resulting in Google taking a slice of $5.2 billion from the sale of mobile apps. Add mobile advertising to the mix, and you get at least $7 billion a year by 2017.
Android was a huge bet for Google and obviously the one that will pay off, big time.