Apple Captured 85% of Global Smartphone Profits Last Year, Its Highest Share Ever [Chart]

Apple reached its highest-ever global smartphone shipment, revenue, and operating profit share in 2022, according to a new report from Counterpoint Research.

The smartphone market struggled in the fourth quarter of 2022, with shipments declining 18% year over year to the lowest level for a holiday quarter since 2013. Shipments for the entire year were down to 1.2 billion units, the lowest since 2013, and annual smartphone revenues amounted to $409 billion, the lowest since 2017. However, a larger decline was prevented by a 1% growth in Apple, the only top five smartphone OEM to do so.




Research Director Jeff Fieldhack said, "having proficiently managed its production problems, Apple was able to weather a year already marred by economic and geopolitical turmoil better than other major smartphone players. Its iPhone Pro series continued performing well and its share of iPhone shipments could have been even higher if not for the production issues caused by the COVID-19 breakout at the Zhengzhou factory, which produces the vast majority of Pro series volumes. As a result, some Pro series volumes got pushed to January."

Despite a year over year decline in shipment, revenue and operating profit for Q4, Apple managed to outperform the market and reach its highest-ever shares of 18%, 48% and 85% in these metrics respectively. This is likely due to Apple's premium target market and a trend for smartphone users to purchase premium devices that last longer.

Elaborating on the 'premiumization' trend, Research Director Tarun Pathak said, "premiumization can also be seen within the Android ecosystem and is being led by Samsung with its foldable smartphones. As a result, Samsung was the only top five OEM besides Apple to see a 1% growth in revenue, even though its shipments declined by 5% in 2022 and operating profit declined by 1%. The performance of its flagship smartphones was stronger than market projections. Nevertheless, with a smaller profit decline than the overall smartphone market, its operating profit share increased slightly to 12% in 2022."

Counterpoint expects the market to remain under pressure until the end of the first half of 2023 and to start recovering thereafter.


More details in the full report linked below...

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