Apple is taking 94% of profits in the entire smartphone industry

Wikipedia/BobParis/Graphics by Skye GouldNot Apple CEO Tim Cook.  

Apple has a tiny market share of the smartphone industry — but it is making some truly massive profits.

The Cupertino company was responsible for just 13.5% of smartphones shipped globally in the third quarter of 2015, according to research firm IDC.

Despite this, it is taking the vast, vast majority of profits in the industry — a staggering 94%.

That figure comes via a new research note from financial services company Cannacord Genuity. Samsung comes in a distant second, making 11%. Yes, that adds up to 105%, because other handsets makers have either failed to make a profit or actively lost money.

It's a big jump on a year prior: In Q3 of 2014, Apple made 85% of profits in the industry. 

Canaccord does caution that its figures may not be perfectly accurate. "Given the ramp of Chinese OEM smartphone volumes and particularly strong Q2/2015 smartphone market share gains for Huawei, we note our industry profit analysis excludes a large portion of this group of OEMs gaining an increasing share of the smartphone and handset market profits due to the lack of available and comparable profit metrics," it warns.

However, "while this likely overstates Apple's profits, we note some leading smartphone OEMs in China are growing global market share through aggressive pricing strategies limiting near-term profit levels."

In short: The 94% figure is probably an overestimate, but many of Apple's most successful competitors in China are deliberately unprofitable.

And the good times are going to just keep on coming. Canaccord says it anticipates "continued high-end smartphone market share gains for the larger screen iPhone 6/6S devices as our surveys indicate a greater mix of Android smartphone consumers are switching to the iPhone from Android."

Here's the data in full — click to expand:

Cannacord Genuity

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Source: Apple is taking 94% of profits in the entire smartphone industry