32 per cent of mobile handset profit goes to Apple

According to Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi, Apple is breaking in and around 32 per cent of the mobile industry's operating profits, despite only capturing an estimated 8 per cent of the industry's revenues.

"With the iPhone and its App Store, Apple has established a formidable smartphone ecosystem, which history suggests is very difficult to overcome,” Sacconaghi explains.

“In fact, Apple has the potential to become a de-facto standard of sorts in the consumer smartphone market, much like it became in the portable media player market with iPods, due in large part to its first mover advantage and tight software and hardware integration."

The figures are calculated from Apple, which is considered the fifth biggest player in the mobile industry, earning $5 billion in the first half of 2009 from an industry that generated an estimated $65.7 billion.

The analyst goes on to say that Apple is in a position to continue growing its successes were it to find a lower price point for its hardware products.

“We believe Apple will ultimately need to lower price (and margins over time) to expand its addressable market opportunity, including offering a lower-cost, non-data plan iPhone,” Sacconaghi concludes.