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Apple's Share of Profits Among Top Mobile Phone Vendors Hits 75%

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Apr 12, 2001
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asymco_q411_mobile_phone_profits.jpg



asymco's Horace Dediu has released his latest calculations of revenue and profits in the global mobile phone industry, finding that Apple has increased its share of the top vendors' profits to 75%. Samsung followed in second place with 16% of industry profits while no other vendor accounted for more than 4% of profits.
Apple reached 75% of profit share, nearly 40% of revenue share and 9% of units share.

Apple and Samsung combined for about 91% of profits with RIM third at 3.7%, HTC fourth at 3.0% and Nokia last at 1.8% of a $15 billion total for the quarter.
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Dediu's analysis covers eight top mobile phone vendors: Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Research in Motion, HTC, LG, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson. While the numbers do not include a few major players such as China's ZTE for which public numbers are not available, his analysis does provide a relatively solid picture of the industry.

asymco_q411_iphone_share.jpg



According to Dediu's numbers, Apple has held the top spot in profits for 13 quarters in row since overtaking Nokia, and now dominates the industry with its 75% share of profits. Apple succeeds by generating high profitability on high-end devices, enabling it to take the majority of profits while still controlling less than 10% of unit sales.

Article Link: Apple's Share of Profits Among Top Mobile Phone Vendors Hits 75%
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/03/apples-share-of-profits-among-top-mobile-phone-vendors-hits-75/
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Apple sells their smartphones for similar prices to everyone else (they even have cheapie models); they spend more on advertising than other handset makers (judging by the number of ads I see); and they don’t get their OS for free! So making that much profit is a real achievement in efficiency and deal-making.
 
hobo.hopkins

hobo.hopkins

macrumors 6502a
Jul 30, 2008
569
6
Hopefully this will put an end to people mindlessly spouting off that Apple is a dying beast.
 
bbeagle

bbeagle

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Oct 19, 2010
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hobo.hopkins said:
Hopefully this will put an end to people mindlessly spouting off that Apple is a dying beast.
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I don't think so.

A lot of people, regardless of numbers, think Apple's success is a fluke, or undeserved, or just because of mindless sheep. They won't see reality.
 
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shawnce

macrumors 65816
Jun 1, 2004
1,442
0
nagromme said:
Apple sells their smartphones for similar prices to everyone else (they even have cheapie models); they spend more on advertising than other handset makers (judging by the number of ads I see); and they don’t get their OS for free! So making that much profit is a real achievement in efficiency and deal-making.
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One aspect of the efficiency advantage that Apple has is they have VERY few models in production at a given time with a high amount of component sharing (includes across to iPad and iPod Touch). This sharing also applies to their OS which is highly shared across Mac, phones, pods, pads, and Apple TV. They also don't have a rapid product turn over so they extract more out of a product over its market life time compared to the R&D, etc. put into making it.

This results in savings in terms of component costs, product costs, and R&D compared to hardware vendors that ...err ****... out several models a year if not a quarter.
 
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bossxii

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2008
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Kansas City
Mr. Snrub said:
As the profits rise the bodies continue to fall

#FoxConn
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Ya because the 5 or 6 people that jump out of the 1.3 million+ that work there is such a huge percentage. Oh wait, if you actually do any research and read that the percentage is actually lower at Foxconn that the surrounding cities, and considerably lower that the suicide rate in the states just to compare a few. Or the fact any given day there are thousands of people waiting outside the gates hoping to get a job at Foxconn because most don't even have a job and hope they get lucky enough to land a decent job. Ya... let's not mention any of that though.

Then again what fun are forums if ignorance and hyperbol aren't running rampant?


As for the story at hand, I"m glad to see Apple doing well so that others will realize people will pay for quality products and services. I don't want some cheap plastic smartphone with half baked software, I rather enjoy a glass and aluminum phone. I don't mind paying for "style" in my electronics just as I don't mind paying for certain brands of clothes, cars, furniture etc... Apple has proven their marketing, engineering and innovations when done well, pay off. Hopefully others will stop trying to imitate and attempt build an entirely new mouse trap vs just trying to build a better version.
 
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dgree03

dgree03

macrumors 65816
Jan 8, 2009
1,177
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0dev said:
True, Nokia held onto Symbian for farrrrr to long. Terrible OS.
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Terrible OS? LMAO you just lost all credibility, which if you make statements like this frequently, your credibility wasn't that high anyway

Anyway, Amazing that apple takes that much of the profit in this space. Selling similar or often inferior parts for a premium price works well. I hope others don't follow, it will slow down innovation.
 
0dev

0dev

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Dec 22, 2009
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dgree03 said:
Terrible OS? LMAO you just lost all credibility, which if you make statements like this frequently, your credibility wasn't that high anyway
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Yes, speaking as someone who's used Symbian since the Nokia 6600 before moving to iOS, Symbian is utterly, utterly terrible.
 
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shawnce

macrumors 65816
Jun 1, 2004
1,442
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0dev said:
Yes, speaking as someone who's used Symbian since the Nokia 6600 before moving to iOS, Symbian is utterly, utterly terrible.
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IMHO it is terrible compared to current mobile OSes and not so fun to develop for compared to what is now possible.
 
0dev

0dev

macrumors 68040
Dec 22, 2009
3,947
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shawnce said:
IMHO it is terrible compared to current mobile OSes and not so fun to develop for compared to what is now possible.
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Yep. It was alright for its time when they could pass the Nokia 6600 or the half-assed N-Gage off as a "smartphone", but using Symbian right up until 2011 was a stupid move by Nokia.
 
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