Apple takes 94% of global smartphone profits

Apple dominates the high-end smartphone market with three barely different iPhone models, and apparently much of the profits, too. A new report shows the Cupertino giant garnered a whopping 94% of profits made by the global smartphone industry, even though it sold merely 14.5% of the volume.

Investment banking and financial company Canaccord Genuity has claimed that Apple dominated the smartphone market in the third quarter of 2015. The figure shows an increase of 9% from the 85% profit-share Apple held last year. According to company data, Apple shipped 48 million iPhone units through the September quarter.

Apple's closest rival and Android smartphone market leader Samsung, on the other hand, shipped about 81 million units during the same quarter, accounting for 24.5% of total volumes. However, the Korean vendor got just 11% share of total profits, far behind the amount that Apple earned in the same period.

Unlike Samsung that had the average selling price of its smartphones at $180 (£118), Apple's iPhones were sold at an average price of $670. This drove 37% of the operating margins. Although the combined profits of Apple and Samsung surpass 100%, as Canaccord analyst Mike Walkley mentions, losses suffered by HTC, BlackBerry, Sony and Lenovo balanced the total profits during the quarter. Walkley said that apart from Samsung, most of the Android smartphone vendors failed to compete in the high-end market segment of more than $400.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, during the company's September earnings call, had noted the growth of iPhones worldwide. "We believe that iPhone will grow in Q1 and we base that on what we're seeing from a switcher point of view. We recorded the highest rate on record for Android switchers last quarter at 30%," Cook said in response to an analyst's query on future guidance.

"We also look at the number of people that have upgraded, that were in the install base prior to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and that number is in the low 30 percentages, so we feel like we have a very open field in front of us," he had said.

Companies like Samsung and HTC are on a move to compete against Apple with their new offerings. But the iPhone maker has a strong presence in the market because of its distinct technologies. The company recently launched iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in several developed and emerging markets across the globe. Both have a proprietary 3D Touch technology and a 64-bit A9X chip.

Apple is additionally in development to bolster its iOS operating system by introducing new features. A recent report suggested that the Steve Jobs co-founded company would soon disrupt the present banking industry by launching a peer-to-peer payment service on iPhones. The new service could have Apple Pay integration to rival PayPal.