Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is now one of the world’s top five mobile processor makers according to revenue. That’s attacking to data from Strategy Analytics.
iPhone, iPad push processor revenue for Apple
Apple makes its own A series processors, which are custom designed for the iPhone and iPad. They’ve been powering the iPhone since the iPhone 4 was released and the iPad since the original model came out. Data from Strategy Analytics indicates that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had 15 percent of processor revenues for smartphones during the second quarter of the year and 34 percent of processor revenues for tablets.
Those numbers made Apple the world’s top processor maker by revenue in tablets and the second biggest processor maker after QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM).
How other companies shape up against Apple
According to the data, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) had a commanding 50 percent of the revenue from smartphone processors during the quarter. Strategy Analytics suggests that the company’s dominance in the smartphone segment is due to its leadership in technology for LTE communications. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) actually fell down to fourth place in the listing for smartphone processor revenue. MediaTek, a Chinese startup, actually beat the company during the quarter.
In tablet processors, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) led other processor makers by more than three times. Samsung and MediaTek each had 10 percent of the market’s revenue. Although Android tablets have beaten Apple in overall tablet share, the iPad is still the world’s most popular single tablet, accounting for about half of all the tablet revenue from around the globe.
Determining Apple’s place in processor revenue
Strategy Analytics said for the purpose of its research, it classified Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as a fabless semiconductor company like Qualcomm, although Apple doesn’t license its processors. After that classification, the firm used “market-level average selling prices” plus the number of reported unit shipments from Apple to determine the revenue amounts.
