iPhone accounts for 86% of global profits

Michael Walkley, an analyst at U.S. investment firm Canaccord Genuity, released a research report on Tuesday saying that through the latest analysis of the estimated operating profits of the smartphone industry in the third quarter, Apple still occupies a huge share of 86% in this market, far surpassing competitors such as Samsung whose profit levels have declined.

In a report announcing his latest research, based on published company earnings and analyst expectations, Walkley said Apple's 86 percent share of the smartphone operating profit market was "remarkable."

Apple's share gains came at the expense of other rivals, particularly Samsung, which is expected to have just 18% of the smartphone operating profit market, the lowest level for Samsung since 2011.

In addition, Apple and Samsung's combined share of this market exceeds 100%, as competitors such as Motorola Mobility and Microsoft have negative operating profits.

In fact, according to Walkley's estimates, apart from Apple and Samsung, the only smartphone manufacturer to have a positive share of this market in the third quarter was LG, at 2%.

It is estimated that the combined operating profit of HTC and BlackBerry in the third quarter had a market share of zero, while Motorola Mobility's operating loss was estimated at US$185 million, with a market share of -2%; Microsoft's smartphone business operating loss was estimated at US$341 million, with a market share of -4%.

Overall, Walkley estimated that the smartphone industry's third-quarter operating profits fell 17.3% compared with the same period last year, but Walkley pointed out that he did not include the growing popularity of Chinese smartphone manufacturers in this report due to the lack of available sales and profit data.

In addition, Walkley conducted a series of surveys on the US market in October and found that so far, Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are the best-selling models of all four major US operators. The survey also found that users tend to buy iPhone models with larger content capacity. Walkley believes that this is a good sign for Apple's average selling price of iPhones in the current fiscal quarter.

"We believe Apple is experiencing a record iPhone 6 upgrade cycle driven by very strong replacement unit growth and taking premium smartphone market share from Android devices," Walkley said. "We believe this trend should result in very strong smartphone unit sales and market share gains for Apple in the fourth quarter of calendar 2014."

Canaccord Genuity maintained its "Buy" rating on Apple shares with a $120 price target.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.