Piper Jaffry is predicting that Android phones will win the market share battle in the smartphone market with a market share of units shipped significantly greater than Apple’s iPhone.

Given the number of carriers and handset makers who currently (or inevitably will) offer Android-powered phones, I would guess that is correct.

But what Piper Jaffrey doesn’t predict is who will capture the highest share of profit in the smartphone space. I will predict that the profit winner will be the same company that currently captures the highest share of smartphone (and personal computer) profits. That company values consumer satisfaction (and the profits that flow from happy consumers) over market share.

Just as cell phone market share numbers painted a rosy picture of Nokia’s business, they didn’t begin to do justice to the enormous profits Apple has raked in from iPhone sales from 2007 onwards. Though Steve Jobs & Co. still haven’t joined the ranks of the world’s top five phone manufacturers in terms of unit shipments, one recent study estimated that the iPhone’s phenomenal ASPs and profit margins translated into Apple possessing 48% of the industry’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) during the second quarter of 2010.

Likewise, anyone relying on PC market share data to judge the strength of Apple’s Mac business would also be selling the company short (figuratively, if not literally). With Mac sales historically skewed toward high-end computer buyers, Apple’s PC ASPs and profit margins have long been well above industry averages. And over the past couple of years, this gap has grown even larger due to the fact that Apple has stayed out of the rapidly growing netbook market, choosing instead to offer the iPad as a netbook alternative.

Thus, while Apple’s Mac sales account for little more than 4% of the PC industry’s global unit shipments (based on the company’s data and IDC), a report from Deutsche Bank estimated that Apple took in 35% of the industry’s operating profit in 2009 — easily outpacing unit shipment leaders Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), along with everyone else.

Disclosure: I own Apple stock.

Related articles

• Piper Jaffray Forecasts 50% Market Share For Android (webpronews.com)
• Android to control half of smartphone market, say analysts (zdnet.com)
• Android Gets Market, iPhone Gets Profits, Everyone Else Gets Jack, Analysts Argue (blogs.forbes.com)