Half of Handset Industry Profits Go to Apple

Not only is Apple getting ready to achieve an important milestone with the shipping of no less than 100 million iPhone devices over a 12-month period, but the company is also enjoying the highest level of profits on the handset area.

The Cupertino-based company accounted for about 50 percent of the net earnings of the handset industry in the first three months of the ongoing year.

In this regard, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley reportedly notes that Apple remains the industry leader, although Google's Android operating system is becoming increasingly popular among end-users.

“Our [June] checks indicated continued strong sales of the iPhone 4, as it remained by far the top-selling smartphone at AT&T and Verizon despite the continued popularity of 4G smartphones and several new high-end Android smartphones,” Walkley stated.

Apparently, the iPhone managed to become the best-selling handset at Verizon Wireless in June, although the wireless carrier added brand new, highly appealing Android devices to its offering during the past few months.

“Further, with Verizon not allowing subsidies to customers that are still under a two-year contract, we anticipate steady upgrades by Verizon customers to the iPhone will continue over the next several quarters,” he continues.

Thus, the Apple iconic device will remain the best-selling handset at Verizon Wireless throughout the year.

Even so, iPhone's share on the smartphone market is expected to go down next year, reaching 15.2 percent in 2012, compared to 16.5 percent this year.

But, since the smartphone market will continue to expand, Apple's share will actually translate into over 100 million devices sold throughout the year, or 25 million units shipped each quarter.

The leader on the smartphone OS area will be Android, which is expected to top 50 percent market share next year, up from only 22.6 percent this year (going up from 67.2 million units to as much as 329 million units).