

Apple’s Share of Smartphone Industry’s Profits Soars to 92% - Someone
http://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-share-of-smartphone-industrys-profits-soars-to-92-1436727458

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dopamean
Isn't Tim Cook a supply chain guy? That may partially explain why Apple is so
good at squeezing every dollar out of their products.

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olympus
Here's a similar article without the paywall I ran into at WSJ:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-92-percent-profits-
enti...](http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-92-percent-profits-entire-
smartphone-industry-q1-samsung-2015-7)

I noted that Apple is responsible for less than 20% of the industry in terms
of units sold last quarter, but makes over 90% of the profit. Considering the
prices of a Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 aren't that different, there is something
way different between the operations at Apple and the competition (read:
Samsung). The difference is in profit margin, but it's not obvious where (at
least to me). Samsung should have great deals with it's affiliates of the same
name on chip and screen prices, and it can't be that it's factory conditions
are much better than Apple's.

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spacemanmatt
Does Apple have to pay a ridiculous patent tax to Microsoft for use of an OS
it developed?

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iMark
No, but neither does Samsung.

Apple does have to pay for R&D for its own operating systems though.

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robmcm
I thought Samsung signed a deal with MS to licence the patents infringed by
Android. Something in the region of $10 per handset.

Source:
[http://www.pcworld.com/article/240738/microsoft_signs_androi...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/240738/microsoft_signs_android_licensing_deal_with_samsung.html)

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nowey
When the profit margin is a cool $250 USD and everyone else competes in low
price/volume but cant even reach apple's numbers, its not surprising at all.
Same is true for the Macbook, they don't ship as much as Lenovo but they do
have a margin that their customers are more than willing to pay.

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rhaps0dy
Last time I checked, Macbooks cost the same as Thinkpads.

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thescrewdriver
Lenovo sells many laptops which cost much less than Thinkpads. Thinkpads tend
to be the more expensive models. A quick search for "macbook" and "thinkpad"
prices between $900 and $1300 for macbook and between $400 and $999 for
thinkpad. Searching for a regular "Lenovo laptop" (excluding Thinkpads) I see
prices as low as $190.

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ZeroGravitas
Unless the methodology has changed "Smartphone Industry" here means 7 firms,
Apple, BlackBerry, HTC, Lenovo/Motorola, Samsung, Nokia/Microsoft, LG.

I doubt Xiaomi and all the littler known brands are making that much, but it
would be interesting for someone to quantify it.

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smrtinsert
this is a duplicate.

