Apple and Samsung together hoovered up more than 95 percent of mobile phone profits last quarter, leaving little left for other players, says Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley.
With strong demand for theiPhone 4S, Apple alone took home around 80 percent of all mobile phone profits in the fourth quarter, up from just 56 percent in the third quarter, according to the analyst.
Although Apple doesnt hold many patents related to 3G services—the company didnt get into the mobile phone business until 2007, after all — it does note that it holds some 140 patents and applications that might become essential to LTE, UMTS, GSM, and other technologies.
Yet the company holds just 8.1 percent of the global mobile phone market.
Computers, mobile phones, and other devices from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Samsung, Nokia, and others come from the same factories.
At the same time, Samsung’s share of industry profits shrank to 15 percent from 26 percent, but its share ofAndroid customers jumped to 39 percent from 35 percent.
For the quarter, Apple sold 37 million iPhones, helping it ring up overall earnings of $13 billion.
Samsung didn’t reveal how many smartphones it sold, but one analyst pegged the number as high as 35 million.
HTC managed to squeeze out 3 percent of all mobile phone earnings last quarter.
Motorola and LG both ended the quarter flat, while Sony Ericsson showed a 2 percent loss.
Nokia is in the midst of a transition to Microsoft’s Windows Phone from its once strong Symbian OS.
RIM has been hit by increasingly lower sales and a looser grip on the enterprise market.
The company is also coping with a management shakeup with new Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins being counted on to help turn things around.
Even Motorola is waiting to see if its takeover by Google receives regulatory approval.
As a result, Walkley doesn’t expect much to change for the less dominant players this year:With RIM, Nokia, HTC, and Sony Ericsson all in the midst of product transitions and Motorola Mobility merging with Google, we believe Apple and Samsung will maintain dominant share positions during [the first half of 2012].
Saroo Buffett is a business journalist based in Mumbai, India. Saroo has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Saroo spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
