[chinesempire]

There's a simple metric you are missing: installed base.

There are 4 billion active smartphones, Tim Cook said iPhones are ~900 million

Let's make it a billion for simplicity.

1 - 3 out of 4 smartphones are not Apple's

2 - Apple makes up 50% of the US market for installed base, it's around 220 million devices, 22% of its global installed base, 5% of the global market. Android is the other 50%, 7% of Android global, 5% of the global market. So Apple is 3 times more reliant on US market than Android.

3 - Apple makes 41% of their revenues in USA

International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter's revenue.Oct 29, 2020

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/10/apple-reports-fourth-...

So more or less we can say that every iPhone sold in USA is worth 3 times an iPhone sold internationally, out of $100 of revenue 1 iPhone in USA is worth $41 one sold internationally is worth 59/4=~$14.5.

That's not in absolute numbers, there are other factors contributing to Apple revenues but it's a good proxy. An iPhone sold in USA generates more revenues overall, being it Apple Store, accessories, laptops, cloud services, music, ...

Android market is harder to analyse being more fragmented, but there are a few key points that can be extracted.

Only 7% of the global Android market is in USA.

Google doesn't make much money from Android, Apple is absolute king of profits here, they are able to extract much more.

Largest Android manufacturers are not in USA and that's a reason why in Asia people are switching to locally manufactured devices that can rival with iPhones in term of perceived usefulness at half the price.

Apple has a minimal penetration in emerging markets, like for example Africa.

We can conclude that what Apple does is still much more relevant in USA and USA is much more relevant for Apple than any other smartphone manufacturer.

Ask yourself this question: what would have happened to the market if the M1 was made by Microsoft or Dell/HP/Lenovo?

How many more companies would have considered it if it could run Windows out of the box.

That's how relevant Apple is in the global market, it's king of profits, it's king of market capitalisation, it makes very good high end devices but as far as the general population is concerned, the M1 won't change much outside of the US.