There are many ways to measure success in the smartphone world, and the latest data from Canaccord Genuity makes a convincing case that the biggest winner of the business of smartphones is Apple.
During the last financial quarter that ended in September, Canaccord Genuity's Michael Walkley's analysis shows Apple had its fourth consecutive quarter earning more than 90 percent of the available profits in the smartphone market (reports Investor's Business Daily), with Q3 2015 seeing Apple take a record 94 percent of the available profits. Even though Apple captured just fifteen percent of the share of unit sales, it not only maximised its financial advantage, but increased it (Q2 2015 saw 92 percent of the profits flow to Apple).
With the talk of an iPhone 6C surfacing once again, the view that Apple should move into the low-end market to gather unit share is a popular one, but you have to ask why a company that is built around the perception of quality at a high cost would want to cannibalize that image and market with a cheaper device in the chase of a numerical target that does not figure in its business plan.
There's also the curious situation that could see Apple command not just the lion's share of profits, but all of the profits from the smartphone world.
Behind Apple, Samsung took eleven percent of the available profits in Q3 2015, with the other notable manufacturers under one percent. If you're wondering why those numbers add up to more than one hundred percent, with some companies running their smartphone departments running at a deficit or making a loss, they attract a 'negative profit' in the calculations.
If the two percent rise this quarter continues, Apple could reach the 100 percent level by the end of June 2016. It may be a mathematical curiosity, but there's nothing to stop the numbers showing Apple capturing 100 percent of smartphone profits over the next few years.
