No Match For Apple Inc. When It Comes To Global Smartphone Profits

Updated on

As always, Apple grabbed the most profits in the global smartphone market last year, according to new research by Strategy Analytics (via The Korea Herald). Even though the tech giant does not hold a large percentage of market share, it dominates worldwide profit share.

Apple well ahead of rivals in profits

For 2016, global smartphone profits came in at $53.7 billion, with Apple accounting for 79% of those profits, while rival Samsung grabbed just 14.6% of the global profits. Apple accounted for about 92% of worldwide smartphone profits in the first quarter of 2015, and this was on just 20% of actual smartphone sales. Even in 2014, the U.S. firm captured about 90% of smartphone profits in the fourth quarter.

Apple’s success in early 2015 and late 2014 can be credited to the popularity of smartphones like the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The popularity of the newer iPhone 7 and 7 Plus also assisted in hiking smartphone shipments by at least 0.5% year-over-year in Q4 of 2016, notes MacRumors.

Also according to Strategy Analytics, Huawei Technologies posted profits of just $929 million, which represents 1.6% of global profits, while Oppo and Vivo accounted for only 1.5% and 1.3% of worldwide profits, respectively. Even together, the top Chinese smartphone makers grabbed less than a 5% share of the smartphone profits, notes AppleInsider.

According to Gartner, Samsung sold about 76.8 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, giving it a market share of 17.8%, while Apple sold 77 million iPhones, capturing a 17.9% market share. This was the first time in two years that the U.S. firm overthrew the Korean company in smartphone sales. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 debacle played a major role in this.

Mac and iPad are popular among IT professionals

And there’s more good news for Apple, as a new survey of IT professionals found that iOS devices and Macs are more manageable than Chromebooks or PCs. The survey is based on ease of device management in terms of configuration, support, software development, and security.

The survey commissioned by Jamf, a software management firm, found that about 99% of businesses use iPads, iPhones or both, and around 91% use Macs. About 62% of those surveyed said that the Mac is either just as easy or easier to roll out compared to a PC, and about 92% said that an iPhone or iPad is as easy or easier to deploy than other device.

About 71% of the businesses surveyed provided employees a choice between an iPhone, Android device or Windows Phone, while about 44% of those surveyed offered a choice between a Mac and a PC.

Leave a Comment