- Within the top 10 brands, only Samsung and Huawei managed to increase their revenue on an annual basis
- Apple’s profit for the holiday season will increase with the new line up of iPhones gaining good traction
According to a report by Counterpoint Research, Apple dominated the global handset market by capturing 66 per cent of industry profits and 32 per cent of the overall handset revenue in the third quarter of 2019 as overall global handset profits declined 11 per cent (year-on-year) to $12 billion.
The report highlighted that the decline was due to an increased mix of entry to mid-tier products and a fall in revenues for key smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Within the top 10 brands, only Samsung and Huawei managed to increase their revenue on an annual basis.
Loyal premium user base in the major markets
“The loyal premium user base in the major markets like the US, the EU, and Japan is one of the reasons that Apple can still operate at a profit level that its competitors can only wish for,” said Karn Chauhan, research analyst with Counterpoint.
He added, “In the immediate future, we believe that Apple’s profit for the holiday season will increase with the new line up of iPhones gaining good traction.”
“However, it is becoming a challenge for Chinese brands to increase their smartphone average selling prices (ASPs) margins due to a combination of longer consumer holding periods and Apple lowering pricing on some key SKUs, which has limited the headroom that Chinese vendors had used to increase their ASPs,” Chauhan elaborated.
The report stated that Chinese smartphone brands operate at low-profit margins, but better than in previous years, even though they are expanding outside China and also penetrating high-tier price bands.
