Apple iPhone: 19% of shipments, 51% of revenue, 87% of profit

The latest numbers from market research firm Strategy Analytics reveal just how much Apple dominates the global smartphone market in the areas where it really matters.

As Apple’s latest numbers showed, even whacking up the price of its latest phone to a grand didn’t stand in the way of it selling a ton of them. The result was the kind of revenues and profits that most countries would be delighted to receive, but the sheer enormity of Apple’s financial performance is put into full perspective when compared to the rest of the global smartphone industry.

According to SA Apple’s 19% share of global smartphone shipments in Q4 2017 translated to 51% of all revenues. In other words everyone else added together – Samsung, Huawei, etc – had to make do with less than half of the total amount spent on smartphones around the world. But the killer stat – coerced out of SA just for us because we’re such great mates – is profit. Apple captured a scary 87% of all global smartphone operating profits in Q4 2017.

“We estimate Apple iPhone captured a record 51% share of all smartphone wholesale revenues worldwide in Q4 2017,” said Neil Mawston of SA. “Apple iPhone generated a huge US$61 billion in the quarter, helped by solid demand for its premium X model, and Apple now accounts for more revenue than the rest of the entire global smartphone industry combined.

“Apple generated three times more smartphone revenue than nearest rival Samsung and 7 times more than Huawei. Apple iPhone’s average selling price is approaching US$800 and almost three times higher than the overall industry average. Apple iPhone is an incredible money-making machine.”

How incredibly depressing for Apple’s competitors, especially when you consider that the main beneficiary of every Android smartphone sale is Google, while Apple also controls its own mobile ecosystem. Here’s the SA table showing how the crumbs off Apple’s table are distributed.