Apple and Samsung have once again combined to account for 100% of the profits to be had in the smartphone business. The iPhone took 57% of the market’s value, with Samsung grabbing the remaining 43%. It’s good to be the kings.
The latest “value share” data from Canaccord Genuity, provided to AppleInsider on Monday, measures how profitable companies are in the handset space. Together, Samsung and Apple are estimated to have accounted for 100 percent of industry profits in the March quarter.
Amazingly enough, that 100% figure is actually a drop from the previous quarter, when the two giants took 103% of the profits. That figure was made possible by losses incurred by Motorola, Sony and Nokia.
“While Apple and Samsung continue to dominate the share of industry profits, improving cost structures and results from other OEMs have reduced Apple and Samsung’s combined share to 100% from levels above 100% in the past several quarters,” analyst T. Michael Walkley wrote in a note to investors on Monday.
Apple’s 57% share of the profits was down from the December quarter, when it grabbed a staggering 72%. Apple’s operating margins dropped from 40% to 35%. The drops came as the company saw softer iPhone 5 sales, and stronger demand for the iPhone 4 and 4S.
Samsung saw it’s share of the profits grow from 29% in the previous quarter to 43% in the March quarter. Samsung’s margins increased also, seeing a slight bump from 20% to 22%.
The only other vendor to get a positive share of the smartphone profits was LG, with a 1% sliver of the pie. LG’s accomplishment was offset, however, by Motorola’s -1% loss.
Everyone else in the list basically broke even in the March quarter, as Nokia, BlackBerry, Sony Ericsson, and HTC all earned, say it with me ZERO percent value shares.
Apple and Samsung are the only smartphone makers tracked by Canaccord to have operating margins to speak of. The other companies all operate on miniscule margins, with Motorola actually seeing -18% margins in the March quarter.
