The iPhone’s Share: 17.25 Percent of Smartphones, 4.2 Percent of All Phones

Horace Dediu:

The iPhone ended the quarter with 17.25% smartphone share and 4.2% phone share. Share of revenues was about 22% and share of earnings was about 51%.

I still hold that 20% smartphone share is possible for the iPhone. As the smartphone market slowly becomes the entire phone market that share will be worth something.

Can Apple dominate — or at least co-dominate — the mobile market with 20 percent share of smartphones sold? The answer may depend on whether the remainder of the market is split between several winners, or if Android winds up with a giant 60 or 70 percent share. But maybe Android’s growing market share lead won’t matter to Apple any more than Symbian’s previous (and fading fast) market share lead. How important is “smartphone” market share compared to overall mobile OS market share (counting things like the iPod Touch and iPad)? I don’t think the answers to these questions are clear.

Here is Dediu’s fourth quarter mobile phone industry overview. Apple made a majority of the industry’s profits selling just over 4 percent of the phones.

★ Monday, 31 January 2011