Apple never seizes to surprise us, whether it’s the specs of its devices, its shipments, its high revenue, or even capturing the lion’s share of operating profit from the local handset market.
The iPhone maker continues to dominate the global handset market despite growing competition from rival Samsung and a few other device makers that have set their sights on the high-end handset market. According to Counterpoint’s latest report, Apple captured nearly 80% of the global handset market by earnings in Q2 2022, leaving all other players far behind.
Apple’s performance in the market becomes more commendable given that it accounted for less than 14% of the global handset market in Q2 2022.
Samsung, which captured 5% more market share in the second quarter of 2022, had pocketed 66% less than Apple in terms of profits.
The gap between Apple and Samsung continues to narrow, but at breakneck speed. Since the launch of the iPhone 12 series in the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple has outperformed Smausng with each passing quarter, both in terms of revenue and profit.
Q2 2022 Global Handsets Revenue and Profit Market
While the global handset market was primarily driven by Apple and Samsung, overall revenue declined 2% YoY and 15% QoQ to $95.8 billion in Q2 2022. Overall profits, on the other hand, rose 6% year-on-year to $13.1 billion. The growth was mainly led by Apple and Samsung, which are actively focusing on promoting their range of ultra-premium models, in particular to attract existing customers looking to upgrade.
Nearly 80% of the global handset market revenue was captured by the top five device makers – Apple, Samsung, xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.
One of the biggest surprises came from the revenue growth recorded by Samsung and Apple. Samsung’s revenue grew 25% while Apple had to settle for just 3% year-over-year. This contrasts sharply with the performance of the two companies in terms of profit sharing.
So, what caused the decline in market revenue despite the splendid performance of the two main growth drivers of the market? It is the drop in shipments due to the containment in China and the continued geopolitical uncertainty.
It should be noted that the average selling price (ASP) increased by 6% despite lower revenues in the second quarter of 2022.
In the second half of 2022, the equations should improve given the launch of the iPhone 14 series and festival season sales. Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in the United States and China, in addition to regional festivals, would increase handset sales. However, the fear of a recession is looming and the currency crash against the dollar could also play spoilsport.
Whatever the situation, the recession-proof iPhone would continue to drive growth given the long-awaited iPhone 14 upgrade.