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Apple rakes in 75% of all mobile phone profits in Q4 2011
Apple may be trailing Nokia and Samsung in global mobile phone market share, but when it comes to the all-important bottom line the company is crushing the competition. Analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco has put together a series of graphics that highlight Apple's meteoric rise to the top, showing that with only only around 9% of the global mobile phone market in Q4 2011, it raked in an astounding 75% of the industry's total profits.
Samsung came in a distant second with 16% of the profit pie, followed by RIM with 3.7%, HTC with 3% and nokia with 1.8%. All together that represents around $15 billion in profits last quarter.
Apple also topped the charts for mobile phone revenue with 'only' 39% market share, further highlighting the company's ample margins, made possible in part due to the tight grip it holds on every aspect of its business, from design to supply chain and manufacturing, and even retail distribution.
This affords them a tremendous advantage over competitors, which may sell more devices but at a comparatively little marginal gain. Not only Apple has more money left over for marketing and R&D, but it could even lower prices if needed as a competitive maneuver and still ensure a healthy profit. On the other hand, one could also argue that with those margins and no signs of the iPhone slowing down, the company could be doing more to improve the working conditions suffered by makers of Apple products overseas.
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User Comments: 6
Got something to say? Post a comment-
This mean only one thing, apple products are way too expensive.
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yep, it also means that 100 apple owners amounts to 600 samsung owners, since samsungs are much cheaper.
Still you have to hand it to apple. they can trick a horse to drink piss instead of fresh water.
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StaffJos said:
The iPhone 3GS is available for free on contract, the iPhone 4 is $100 and the 4S $200. I think they are pretty much in line with the competition and even cheaper in some cases. For example, the Motorola Droid Razr and Samsung Galaxy Nexus launched at $300 with a two-year contract.
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I don't think its the new contracts that are to blame. Its apple fans paying the premium to upgrade before their contract allows them too for a decent price. I'm sure that has something to do with it.
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I don't know if its really Apple squeezing the consumers as much as they squeeze their suppliers. Their products are actually priced in line with comparable products...They just put more slave lobor into effect to makes those obscene profits.
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Those are also US prices Jos, not everywhere has subsidised phones. Even in the UK where it is subsided you'll find that having to pay extra to get an iPhone on contract is the norm. That graph shows clearly that Apple has their consumers by the balls and are squeezing them dry...
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