It is by number of units sold, not revenue, and with Samsung at first place.
I find samsung quality medium at best. They charge top of the line prices and have really bright phones and TVs... However their hardware has broken multiple times and their smart TVs are annoying slow for something you pay 1,000 USD for. (my grandpa bought said TV)
Then Apple, oh boy, either Apple has a marketing team that patrols HN or they have rabid fanboys. It is never good for consumers or developers to have proprietary hardware and development kits. I dont understand the relationship between Customer and Apple. Customer constantly gets screwed and they love it. I dont understand it, maybe its a comfort/reliable thing, but in 2018 use-ability seems pretty standard in every phone/app.
Maybe this is true because profit feeds itself, a company gets big and uses that to get bigger. The bigger the margin between revenue and profit, the more successful=more TV ads=more profit.
I find this a very frustrating situation for everyone who has Apple or Samsung products. But it looks like there is no end in sight, and Samsung has a very active Reddit marketing team that will downvote/destroy anything negative.
Your opinion that "it is never good for consumers or developers to have proprietary hardware and development kits" isn't much of an argument, it's just an opinion.
I recall once owning a Verizon phone where you had to both buy it outright and pay $10 per month to use the gps. Only partners were allowed to make apps so it was impossible for someone to just turn around and make a mapping app for less money.
You can just not provide updates to drivers ensuring that people are stuck buying new devices to use a newer OS.
You can make it increasingly hard to get official parts/services by using non standard parts and controlling access to such.
I don't think its some much an opinion as pretty obvious.
That has nothing to do with being “proprietary”
Apple is releasing OS 12 later this year for the iPhone 5S released in 2012. How many Android phones from 2015 let alone 2012 are still supported by the manufacturer?
To go even further back with proprietary operating systems, my 2009 era Dell laptop is currently running Windows 10.