Apple dominated the worldwide smartphone market in 2016 by grabbing over 80 percent of smartphone profits globally, according to latest data released by Strategy Analytics on Wednesday. What would be more soothing for Apple fans is to know that the iPhone-maker beat its archrival Samsung Mobile by a huge margin by making five times the profit of the South Korean tech giant last year.
According to the numbers from Strategy Analytics reported by The Korea Herald, the global smartphone market is estimated to have made total operating profits of $53.7 billion in 2016, while as much as $44.9 billion of that amount belonged to Apple.
Samsung Mobile, the world's largest smartphone vendor by market share, posted operating profits of only $8.3 billion, which accounted for more than 14 percent of the global profits, according to Strategy Analytics.
Although Samsung Mobile shipped more smartphones than Apple in 2016, it didn't reflect in profits for the company which is still recovering from the recent Galaxy Note 7 crisis. Following reports of multiple explosions and fires due to faulty batteries, Samsung had to recall the Note 7 twice, and eventually cease production.
Samsung Mobile itself reported that its fiscal 2016 operating income was 10.81 trillion KRW ($9.44 billion), which included sales of its tablets, PCs and other devices. Apple, on the other hand, reportedly posted total operating revenue of $60 billion for fiscal 2016.
Although it's unclear how Strategy Analytics arrived at its numbers, the huge difference between profits of the two companies is remarkable.
What also helped Apple was the low profitability at Chinese smartphone companies, which are continuously producing cheaper handsets in massive numbers.
China's Hawaii posted an operating profit of $929 million last year, accounting for 1.6 percent of global profits. It was followed by OPPO and Vivo who took 1.5 percent and 1.3 percent of the global smartphone profits, respectively.
