Apple Has 93% of Mobile Profits

Barron's ^ | February 9, 2015, 9:48 A.M. ET | Tiernan Ray

[ctdonath2]

Canaccord Genuity’s Mike Walkley this morning ... writes that his assessment of vendor data in smartphones suggests, whose shares he rates a Buy, captured 93% of industry profits in Q4 ... while Samsung Electronics has a minority of profit and all others operate at no profit or at a negative margin

[cuban leaf]

You are absolutely correct. Saying something is overpriced is a subjective statement.

I was being subjective. ;-)

[ctdonath2]

Not quite, but they are about to help get diabetes under control.

[ctdonath2]

Not quite, but they are about to help get diabetes under control: http://www.macrumors.com/2015/02/09/apple-watch-dexcom-glucose-app/

[Star Traveler]

Only Apple-haters make up stuff that they say Apple customers say ... LOL ...

OR ... are you saying the anti-Apple and Apple-haters believe this ... :-) ...

[ctdonath2]

Oh, I understand. Still doesn’t follow.

So...from your perspective, how IS the rest of the smartphone industry’s profits doing? Right about break-even on average, most losing money?

[Mad Dawgg]

I have never figured out why anyone would pay premium for something that has a shelf life of 2-3 years max then a new “better” version comes out.

[wardaddy]

Apple is Clapton

No

Really

Apple is Life

Did anyone here fawn over Microsoft or Exxon or Wally when they had great years

The 6s came out......hipster swooned

It’s relatively temporary

The Nips ain’t asleep u know

[Rebel_Ace]

General Motors once had over 50% of the domestic auto market. During this "golden age" if anyone had suggested that GM would go bankrupt, becoming a ward of the State, you would have been laughed out of the room.

But guess what? GM "failed". All institutions run by people are eventually subject to people's failings, weaknesses and whimsy. Just as 50 years ago there was no Apple Computers, 50 years hence there might not be again.

That being said, it is pretty clear that Apple is on top of its game in business right now. It is also historically accurate to say that it is hard to stay at the top over the long haul. If part of Apple iPhone's appeal is exclusivity, then there is a natural limit on how many can be sold before they are perceived as "common". It is like that time when the "new kid on the block" suddenly becomes "just another kid on the block".

I don't happen to own an iPhone, but my wife has both an iPad as well as a Surface, and uses them both as an educator. Here are her exact words comparing the two: "The Surface is what the iPad wants to be when it grows up."

Kids at her school break down like this: Young ones that want to "point and shoot" simple educational apps grab the iPads at the school. Older kids that actually want to do something for homework grab the Surfaces, because they can jam a USB drive in it, a simple, and some would say fundamental shortcoming on an iPad.

Will Apple fall? Sure, Rome did. What will do it? I don't know, probably no single thing, but a death of a hundred cuts, so to speak. This year? Naw. Next? Probably not. 50 Years? Pretty much 100% certain.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Obviously a failed business model!!!

[freedumb2003]

>>So...from your perspective, how IS the rest of the smartphone industry’s profits doing? Right about break-even on average, most losing money?<<

Not my point. But I can probably find some industry where someone is making more money than others, say the garbage hauling industry or maybe aglet manufacturers.

And one analyst doth not a determination make.

[CodeToad]

This is FreeRepublic, not an Apple blog. If you don’t like my comments to the paid Apple trolls go somewhere else.

[Star Traveler]

We don’t mind posting, it’s just that Free Republic doesn’t like LIARS, you see ...

[TalonDJ]

I don’t like to reward a company that can’t figure out how to make a profit at what they do. In other words, whose product does not offer more value to me than the price I pay for it. If people only buy your stuff if you sell it at or near a loss? It is garbage.

[bigbob]

That’s why I own Android devices and Apple stock.

[Star Traveler]

You said ... “Just as 50 years ago there was no Apple Computers, 50 years hence there might not be again.”

As long as they keep it up until I’m dead, which will be before the next fifty years ... :-) ...

BESIDES ... companies are looked at from quarter to quarter, and on that basis Apple is WILDLY SUCCESSFUL!

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Apple’s at a point where they could outright destroy all competition by GIVING AWAY their products for a year or so, and still survive with cash in the bank.

If they did, I'd still buy a Galaxy for $400 than take an iPhone for free. I just don't like them.

[SamAdams76]

But...but...Apple is OVERPRICED. But...but...but Android sells WAY more devices than Apple so they must be better. Besides, Apple is going to get their comeuppance. Just you wait and see. Steve Jobs is gone forever. And the Great Android is going to come out of the sky and establish dominance over the entire smartphone and tablet industries.

[Ingtar]

(Samsung) sold 95 million handsets in the fourth quarter, of which 71 million to 76 million of them were smartphones. Rival Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter. I guess that huge profit came because for Apple they lump in IPads.

[VanDeKoik]

CodeToad, I feel for ya.

It’s the closest thing to talking to leftists on FR (they use much of the same language and rhetorical techniques). The more you point out their bizarre adulations, hypocrisy, or how this companies profits are being used to push leftist agendas against conservatives, the more they will take personal offense and demand your silence.

So good luck. The main army will be here once they activate their ping list.

[Wuli]

Now if the Obama administration was TRULY going after a problem of “monopoly” power in any area of telecommunications, instead of the phony “net neutrality” charge against the telecoms, then you’d think they’d have something to say about Apple in cell phones and Google in Internet browsing and Internet advertising. But, you see, net neutrality is REALLY about putting restraints on the telecoms, to the benefits of Google, Netflix and in Music and Video streaming now Apple as well.