Samsung is, by far, the biggest provider of Android smartphone technology in the U.S. In December 2010, 19.1% of U.S. Android users were on Samsung phones, according to ComScore. By December 2012, Samsung had become the leading Android provider, at 37.8%. HTC was second, with 17.5% of all U.S. Android users. Research firm IDC said that 40.3% of all Android phones shipped worldwide in third quarter of 2012 were Samsung phones.

Using Android software has allowed Samsung to integrate all of Google’s popular mobile services into its devices, and in turn, make them more alluring to customers. Likewise, Samsung’s success and ability to eat into Apple’s market share has helped Google become the dominant leader in mobile advertising. Google accounted more than half of all mobile-advertising revenue in the U.S. and worldwide in 2011 and 2012, according to eMarketer.

Underlying this prosperous, mutually beneficial relationship, however, the two companies have slowly started to infringe on the other’s core competency. Google bought mobile-phone maker Motorola Mobility in summer 2011 and recently hired one of Samsung’s top marketers to grow it into a profitable business. Samsung, meanwhile, has started working with Intel to develop Tizen, an open-source alternative to Android.

Some suggest each move is a hedge. Samsung wants to be prepared should Google decide to restrict certain Android features to Motorola smartphones, and Google wants to own hardware in case Samsung decides to move all of its phones to Tizen (or a different platform it owns exclusively). With both moves, the companies are becoming closer to what Apple is: a vertically integrated tech company that owns and controls the software and hardware behind an array of consumer-electronic goods, enjoying the correspondingly high profit margins.

But neither company can afford to compromise the relationship in the short term. Google’s mobile-advertising business depends on the scale Samsung helps provide, and Samsung has yet to develop an OS on par with Android. Rather, what’s occurred between Samsung and Google in the past year and a half is just the beginning of a competition that will play out over the next several years and eventually include smart TVs, internet-enabled home appliances and wearable computers.

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