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Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

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Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#111

Post by dagw »

handrous wrote: post #88
mytailorisrich wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huawei went after Apple, including on quality. They were shot down right when their sales overtook Apple's (maybe a coincidence, who knows...)

Were they taking sales from Apple, to any major extent? Or just shifting around the Android market? If the latter, I can't imagine Apple'd care. Samsung's been doing the same thing (being the Apple of Android) for quite a while, and it hasn't mattered much.

Were they taking sales from Apple, to any major extent?

I can't speak for China, but in Europe everybody I know who bought a Hauwei phone did so because they wanted a 'cheaper Samsung'.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#112

Post by saltminer »

mohanmcgeek wrote: post #36
lapdanz wrote: post #4

Apple will dominate the market until the market itself becomes irrelevant. Good news for Apple is that in the next 5 years I don’t see something in the horizon to challenge the market of smartphones.

There's definitely something: Google, Microsoft or Amazon launching a sub $300 smartphone and an ad campaign making fun of people spending a thousand dollars for nothing extra. It feels like FAAMG minus Google don't want to compete with each other on the consumer side.

> an ad campaign making fun of people spending a thousand dollars for nothing extra

In the US, consumers don't usually see the full price tag. Carriers just put phones on payment plans (the iPhone 13 Pro Max 128GB is currently $36/month for 30 months on Verizon, for example), so it's a lot easier for consumers to buy expensive phones without ever having to think "wow, this thing is >$1k", especially since they'll probably trade it in after a year or two for a newer model.

I don't see such an ad campaign being very successful here unless carriers stopped financing devices (which they have no incentive to).

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#113

Post by gtirloni »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #52
gtirloni wrote: post #19

> In Q2 2021, it captured 75% of the overall handset market operating profit and 40% of the revenue despite contributing a relatively moderate 13% to global handset shipments So they charge a premium for their phones, that's all. Android completely obliterates Apple if you count number of units shipped.

Android is an operating system. Apple is a company. “That’s all” is disingenuous. If Samsung could charge a similar premium for their phones, and capture a similar profit, I’m fairly confident they would.

It's hard to say Apple is some kind of king of the hill when 9 in 10 people around the globe have an Android. Congrats to them on extracting more money from their customers though, I don't see how that helps in general (unless you hold Apple stock).

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#114

Post by ASalazarMX »

cs702 wrote: post #18

...with only a 13% share of units. That is, all other vendors together sold 87% of units, but earned only a combined 25% of industry-wide profit. The vast majority of those other vendors are companies headquartered in Asian countries with a long history of promoting market share, access to information, and knowledge transfer at the expense of short-term profit. They might be making less money willingly to grow/mainta…

Apple certainly was the winner of Huawei being pushed out of the USA market. Now they can continue slowly issuing premium features their competition had years ago, like the macro lens in the new iPhone 13.

IMO, if Huawei had remained, high-end hardware would have entered a race to the bottom, and Apple would have been the biggest loser, we can't have that.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#115

Post by ericmay »

InTheArena wrote: post #50
ericmay wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea but kind of a dangerous game to continue playing - does China want to have factories and suppliers close down and relocate out of China? Where will those people work? It may happen anyway but these scenarios are never easy or clean-cut.

China has no problem using the power of the state to ensure that factories and suppliers don't relocate out of china.

Doesn't really work when the factories and suppliers supply companies located outside of China and who can make that happen without the consent of the CCP.

Either way, it's not clear-cut. Sure China can do that. Great now they can pay those workers since companies like Apple won't be paying them...

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#116

Post by newsclues »

criddell wrote: post #20

I think one of the smartest things Apple did was open physical stores and not depend on carrier stores and Best Buy. I've often wondered why their competitors don't do the same thing? Why isn't there a Samsung store a block away from every Apple store? Having a physical location for purchases, repairs, and support is why I always recommend Apple devices when somebody who isn't super technical asks me what to buy. Mic…

The first Sony store opened in 1970 in Canada

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#117

Post by clairity »

beckman466 wrote: post #108
cs702 wrote: post #18

...with only a 13% share of units. That is, all other vendors together sold 87% of units, but earned only a combined 25% of industry-wide profit. The vast majority of those other vendors are companies headquartered in Asian countries with a long history of promoting market share, access to information, and knowledge transfer at the expense of short-term profit. They might be making less money willingly to grow/mainta…

> ...with only a 13% share of units. > Asian countries with a long history of promoting market share, access to information, and knowledge transfer at the expense of short-term profit. Apple is the king of parasitic technological and scientific knowledge rentierism and obfuscation, as well as king in exploitation. it's neo-imperialism at it's most 'refined'. profits are surplus value extracted from workers, including…

the criticism of underpaid foreign labor is entirely fair, but that’s largely a government failure to rein in labor exploitation and to regulate markets for fairness and competitiveness. in a well-functioning market, you’d have competition (slowly) drive profits down as the many competitors figure out ways to attract and retain customers through price and differentiation.

that’s not to underplay apple’s role in exploiting labor and international legal differences. however, it’s telling that apple employees are protesting going into the office rather than global labor exploitation, while patting themselves on the back for being green (removing chargers ‘for the planet’).

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#118

Post by newsclues »

criddell wrote: post #46
curiousllama wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple sells a luxury product. Physical stores are the type of thing you do for a luxury product. You can buy basic macarons at the grocery store, or go to Laduree for the luxury version. Same deal.

The most expensive (non-novelty) phones sold right now are from Samsung. At every price point that Apple sells at, Samsung has a similar product. Apple also sells their handsets through carriers, big box stores, and online through places like Amazon. You can often buy their stuff for less at these places yet the stores are still packed because people will pay more if it's a better experience.

Stores also function as service centres.

Lots of people only use the Apple store to get things fixed.

The store is just a physical extension of apples drive to put the customer experience first.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#119

Post by CJefferson »

acdha wrote: post #96
CJefferson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say "not as low", the cheapest iPhone I can find looks like the SE, at 389 pounds. I can find multiple Android phones for 50 pounds -- that's nearly an eigth of the price. I don't deny the SE is a better phone than a 50 pound phone, but it's also in an entirely different bracket -- I wouldn't give a 10 year old a nearly 400 pound iPhone, I'd give them a 50 pound Android, for example.

How many people are happily buying those really cheap phones, though? I've known a few, who bought a couple per year(!) because the hardware kept failing, but it seems like most people are buying in the iPhone SE range and the younger kids end up getting a hand-me-down when their parents upgrade (and since an iPhone is 6+ years of service, that's plenty).

As Apple only sell about 25% of handsets, as discussed in the article, most people are buying Android handsets.

I know lots of people who have bought a cheap Android handset and used it happily for a few years, myself among them. Most Apple owners I know keep the phones until they die, so don't have hand-me-downs. Obviously it depends greatly on the wealth of people as to how eager they are to upgrade their phone.

Re: Apple Captures 75% of Global Handset Market Operating Profit in Q2 2021

#120

Post by clairity »

cs702 wrote: post #18

...with only a 13% share of units. That is, all other vendors together sold 87% of units, but earned only a combined 25% of industry-wide profit. The vast majority of those other vendors are companies headquartered in Asian countries with a long history of promoting market share, access to information, and knowledge transfer at the expense of short-term profit. They might be making less money willingly to grow/mainta…

it’s been like this for a long time (in fact, they used to have ~90% of profits on ~10% of share), which is why apple has the market cap it does.

apple has a differentiation strategy, which explicitly goes after fatter profits rather than volume. the handset market is so large however, that apple can still have plenty of volume (100 million units/year) to drive down cost with economies of scale.

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