When it comes to the share of profits in the smartphone market, Apple and Samsung are the two and only giants. While 109 percent of profit is shared by the two companies, other handset manufacturers fight over the crumbs.
A new research conducted by analyst Mike Walkley of research firm Canaccord Genuity estimated that Apple raked in 56 percent of profits for smartphones for the third quarter of 2013, up from 53 percent in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Samsung brought home 53 percent of the profit, up from 49 percent from the previous quarter.
Apple was able to achieve the jump even while preparing for the rollout of the new iPhone that came as the 5s and 5c variants.
"Given a full quarter of iPhone 5s/5c sales, we anticipate very strong operating profit share for Apple during the holiday quarter. Further, we believe Apple's value share of the handset market is even higher than our estimates... considering Apple's dominant share of the tablet market, as some Android OEMs include tablet sales in reported smart device sales and profits," said Walkley, in a research note.
Walkley also forecasts a better fourth quarter for Apple with a good volume of iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c rolling off the assembly line to boost the supply in the market in time for the holiday season.
However, not everybody is getting into the holiday cheer. As Apple and Samsung's coffers are filled to the brim, other manufacturers are operating while losing money. BlackBerry struggled on Q3 with a negative four percent profit share from a negative one performance in the second quarter. Google's Motorola is in a similar situation with negative three percent.
Other manufacturers such as HTC, Nokia, and LG all posted profits of negative one percent. All the three companies broke even during the second quarter.
Sony, on the other hand, dropped from a one percent value share in Q2 to just break even during Q3.
According to the analyst, the survey did not include new Chinese smartphone manufacturers because of lack of data about their profits.
