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Apple owns 8.8% of cell phone market, 73% of cell phone profits

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:24PM EST
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After posting the most profitable quarter in technology company history to close 2011 — and the second most profitable quarter among all companies, ever — Apple came back again in the first calendar quarter of 2012 and managed another monster quarter. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant earned $11.6 billion on $39.2 billion in sales during the second fiscal quarter of 2012, and its iPhone was responsible for an estimated 80% of all smartphone profits during the quarter. According to Apple watcher Horace Dediu, Apple’s share of all cell phone profits was nearly as overwhelming.

Market research firm IDC states that Apple’s share of the global cell phone market was flat at 8.8% last quarter. Despite accounting for such a small portion of global cell phone shipments, Apple’s share of all mobile phone profits reached 73% in the quarter.

“The new market disruption is the migration of a large number of demanding customers away from phones-as-voice-products to phones-as-computing-products,” Dediu notes as one of the driving factors behind Apple’s performance. The analyst also states that Samsung accounted for 26% of all major handset vendor profits last quarter, while Sony, Nokia, Motorola, LG and RIM all lost money and HTC was roughly even.

[Via CNNMoney]

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Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.