Apple takes 103.6% of all smartphone profits

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple's smartphone market share by unit shipments is declining, but it continues to dominate where it counts: profits. BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long estimates that Apple accounted for 103.6% of smartphone industry operating profits in the third quarter. Its share is over 100% because other vendors lost money in the business, resulting in Apple having more smartphone profit than the industry netted overall. In the year-earlier period, Apple grabbed 90% of smartphone profits, Long said in a research report Thursday, November 3, Investor's Business Daily reports.

Apple was No. 1 by a mile in smartphone operating profit in Q3. Among major vendors, Samsung was No. 2 in smartphone profits with a tiny 0.9% share, he said. Money-losers in the smartphone business last quarter included LG and HTC, Long said.

Samsung ceded market share in smartphone shipments to Apple and Chinese vendors in the third quarter because of its Galaxy Note 7 troubles, Long said. He expects further share loss by Samsung in the current quarter.

Apple captured over 100% of smartphone industry profits for the first time, thanks in part to Samsung's weaker results, Long said.

Samsung had 21.7% of the smartphone market based on units sold in Q3, followed by Apple (13.2%) and Huawei (9.7%), BMO said.

Global smartphone shipments rose 2.1% year over year to 346 million units in Q3, BMO estimates.

Long predicts that smartphone unit shipments will grow at a compound annual rate of 2.6% from 2015 to 2019.

"Emerging markets will dominate smartphone growth, at 4%, while developed markets will decline less than 1%," Long said, according to Investor's Business Daily.

On Wednesday, Strategy Analytics reported that Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Android operating system captured its highest smartphone market share ever in the third quarter. Android accounted for 87.5% of global smartphone shipments in Q4, compared with Apple's iOS, with 12.1% market share.