Apple sold 43% of all phones priced above $400 globally in Q2, earned majority of handset profits

Apple's premium iPhone X helped it slurp up more profits than all the brands in China, and the rest of the world

According to a pair of new reports by Counterpoint Research, Apple's share of global handset profits remained distantly ahead of the combined earnings of all other phone makers worldwide.

Apple's 62 percent share of profits generated in Q2 was far ahead of Samsung's 17 percent, and was over three times the profit share of China's Huawei, OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi put together. The remaining profits of more than 600 other handset brands amounted to less than 1 percent.

Counterpoint stated that "aggressive" efforts by Chinese brands to sell higher-end flagships resulted in their combined profits reaching $2 billion for the first time, suggesting that Apple's 62 percent share amounted to $6 billion. Apple reported iPhone revenues of about $30 billion in its fiscal quarter.

In the report, analyst Karn Chauhan wrote that Samsung's profits from smartphones "declined 21 percent annually due to weaker than expected sales of the Galaxy S9 series. The Galaxy S9 series shipments declined 24 percent in Q2 2018 as compared to Galaxy S8 series in Q2 2017."

Apple holds 88 percent of sales of +$800 smartphones

Profits in the industry were overwhelmingly generated by high-end premium models. And while overall demand for smartphones dropped by 1 percent in Q2, sales of premium smartphones (defined as being priced above $400, and accounting for about a fifth of all smartphone sales) actual grew by 7 percent globally.

Apple held 43 percent of all "premium sales," ahead of Samsung's 24 percent share, OPPO's 10 percent, Huawei's 9 percent, Xioami's 3 percent and 2 percent claimed by OnePlus.

Among phones priced between $400 and $600, Apple and OPPO were tied at 22 percent of sales, Samsung reached 16 percent, Huawei accounted for 14 percent, Xiaomi 6 percent and OnePlus 5 percent. Between $600 and $800, Apple accounted for 44 percent of all sales, followed by Samsung with 41 percent.

"Samsung's share in the $600-$800 segment declined due to fewer than expected sales of the Galaxy S9 series," noted Tarun Pathak. Above $800, Counterpoint stated that Apple dominated with 88 percent of all sales being iPhones.