Forget market share, Apple’s iPhone is still making the most money by far
Even though Android's share of the smartphone market recently reached 88% -- setting a new record in the process -- Apple doesn't seem to mind too much given that the company still commands the lion's share of the profits across the entire industry. Per a recent research note from BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long, Apple's profit-share now checks in at an astounding 103.6%.
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"Tim Long estimates that Apple accounted for 103.6% of smartphone industry operating profits in the third quarter," Investor's Business Daily reports."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."
While smartphone manufacturers like LG and HTC failed to churn a profit last quarter, Samsung managed to eek by with a 0.9% share of profits across the industry.
All in all, it's another impressive showing from Apple which serves to prove that pure marketshare, in and of itself, is a poor metric for measuring success in the hyper-competitive smartphone industry. If anything, Apple's current marketshare -- estimated at around 12.1% last quarter -- gives the company a lot of room for growth. In fact, Tim Cook during Apple's most recent earnings conference call said that the number of Android to iPhone switchers in 2016 was the highest Apple has ever seen. Meanwhile, if Android manufacturers are still struggling to turn a profit when they're dominating from a marketshare perspective, one has to wonder if any company will ever be able to come close to catching up to Apple.
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