Apple held its earnings call yesterday and managed to surpass astronomical expectations, but it also set a new bar for itself: Thanks to the iPhone, Apple is now the world’s largest handset vendor by revenue. And it did this just with the iPhone. Nokia, who undoubtedly pumps out the most handsets worldwide, has now taken a backseat to the iPhone.
All Things D reports:
According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics Apple’s wholesale revenues from the iPhone hit $11.9 billion for the quarter, exceeding those of Nokia whose aggregated total revenues from smartphones, feature phones and basic phones combined was $9.4 billion.
It’s not surprising when other research firms are making assertions like the iPhone being much greater as a business than Google’s entire operation. There are plenty who hate on Apple, and plenty more who hate on the iPhone, but with figures like this, Apple is far too busy wading through all its cash to care. There is no arguing figures like these and what they represent.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that Apple doesn’t dabble in the low-end market. Manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung and LG offer plenty of feature phones that are often free or less than $100 on contract. The iPhone retails for $199 and $299 in the U.S. for the 16GB and 32GB versions, respectively, of the new model smartphone. Its average wholesale price for Q1 globally was $638.
Late last year, Apple surpassed all handset makers combined in terms of market value share, which is quite a feat to accomplish having been around in this business for only three years at the time. And now, nearing four years after the release of the original iPhone, Steve Jobs & Co. has them all beat.
For all the criticism it takes – proprietary hardware, reliance on iTunes, a closed app ecosystem, non-removable battery, lack of memory expansion – Apple has proven that the small handful of vocal haters didn’t make a dent in the company’s bottom line. In fact, Apple thrived amongst it all.
[Via: All Things D]