The latest data from Counterpoint Research shows that despite iPhone sales slowing down, Apple continues to dominate the premium smartphone market across the world. More importantly, Apple raked in 73 percent of the entire profit generated by the smartphone industry in 2018.

While impressive, the numbers are actually worse when compared to 2017. In 2017, Apple captured 58 percent of the global premium smartphone market. In 2018 though, Apple saw its market share decline to 51 percent thanks to the rise of Chinese OEMs Huawei, Oppo, and OnePlus. While Huawei and Oppo did exceedingly well in China, OnePlus dominated the European and Indian smartphone market.

The premium smartphone segment grew by 14 percent YoY which is higher than the growth of the overall smartphone market. With higher profit margins and ASP, major smartphone OEMs are now looking to capture the premium smartphone market.

In 2017, Apple captured 75 percent of the total profits generated by the smartphone market. In 2018, this declined to 73 percent. Samsung also saw its profit share decline from 14 percent to 13 percent. Chinese brands made the most of this and saw their total profit margins increasing by 3 percent.

The Average Selling Price (ASP) of Chinese smartphone brands also increased by 14 percent which signifies the consumer interest in premium smartphones. This was thanks to Chinese OEMs releasing innovative premium phones with pop-up selfie cameras, in-display fingerprint sensor, and more. The international expansion of many Chinese brands and their ability to better read a market also helped them to better cater to consumer needs on a regional basis.

Our Take

The steady rise of Chinese OEMs in the smartphone market should definitely worry Apple now. Chinese OEMs have slowly but steadily been eating away into Apple’s market share and the company needs to do something about this before its too late.