Samsung took the rest, but its share is shrinking, the report said.
Canaccord Genuity’s report on industry profits a year ago estimated that Apple took 87.4 percent of phone earnings in the fourth quarter of 2013, while Samsung took in 32.2 percent of industry profits. (The numbers add up to more than 100 percent because Apple and Samsung combined made more money than other competitors lost.)
The report acknowledges that it may be overstating Apple’s profit because it does not include estimates for some Chinese vendors like Xiaomi, which is one of the biggest smartphone makers in China, the largest smartphone market in the world. The report notes that no estimate could be drawn because Xiaomi, a private company, does not disclose its profit numbers.
However, Xiaomi’s profit model does not primarily rely on smartphone sales. The company sells its phones for nearly the same amount it costs to buy and assemble the materials. To make money, Xiaomi focuses on selling apps, games, and special Android operating system themes and Internet services.
The upshot of the report is that Samsung is losing ground in its fight with Apple for smartphone dominance. Samsung still sells more cellphones than any other company. But its profit is eroding because Apple is eating into its sales of high-end smartphones, a trend that is likely to continue after the enormous success of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Both iPhones, which include bigger screens, gave Apple a huge boost in China, an important market for Samsung.
Mike Walkley, the Canaccord Genuity analyst who wrote the report, said he estimated that Apple will have nearly half a billion iPhone customers by the end of 2015.
“If Apple continues to gain high-end smartphone market share,” Samsung will be the most affected maker of Android smartphones, he added.
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