The iPhone’s market share is down around the world, but you know what’s up? Its profitability related to other smartphones.
In fact, according to a new report from BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long, Apple accounted for 103.6 percent of all smartphone industry operating profits in the third quarter of 2016.
If you’re wondering how Apple managed to gain over 100 percent of the profits, it’s apparently because not only was Apple astonishingly profitable in its own right, but other vendors in the market actually lost money in the quarter.
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While I’m not an accountant, and therefore still scratching my head at the non-theoretical realities of having more than 100 percent of a particular market, it still shows just how far Apple is ahead of the competition.
By comparison, Apple’s closest rival (and we mean “rival” in the loosest sense) when it comes to profitability is Samsung, which took home the no. 2 spot with 0.9 percent of profits. Samsung was hurt in the quarter by its disastrous Note 7 launch and subsequent multiple recalls and eventual cancellation. LG and HTC were both money-losers in the quarter.
To give an idea of how this doesn’t directly correlate with sales, Samsung came first place in sales with 21.7 percent, Apple in no. 2 with 13.2 percent, and Huawei in third position with 9.7 percent.
Yesterday, a new report from Strategy Analytics noted that iPhone worldwide market share fell to 12 percent worldwide, while Android phones captured 88 percent of global smartphone shipments.
Source: Investors
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “Apple was the only smartphone maker that made real profit last quarter”
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All of Android – combined – LOST money, while Apple made ALL of the industry profits…
Which *proves* market share for market share’s sake – and as an indicator of “who is winning” – is utterly wrong.
Profit is the ONLY measure that matters – especially in a mature market like smartphones. The market has already been divvied-up up at this point, and Apple took ALL of the chunk that has *any* profit.
All the Androids are left trying to grab the scraps that lose the least amount of money. Which, funny enough, means that the more market share they gain (the more they “win” according to them), the more money they lose.
Apple wouldn’t take Androids money-losing market share if you GAVE it to them.