Apple may have one third of all smartphone users by the end of 2018, according to Canaccord Genuity analyst

Feb 10, 2015 09:40 GMT  ·  By

An investor note from Canaccord Genuity indicates that Apple is amassing such high revenue on the iPhone that it had 93% of all mobile profits made in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Buoyed by the massive iPhone 6 launch, Apple’s numbers are so impressive that it prompted Canaccord Genuity to raise its target on AAPL from $135 (€119) to $145 (€128). Analyst Mike Walkley, who works with the firm, rates Apple’s stock as a buy.

“We believe the strong iPhone 6 replacement sales should continue during C’15, as we estimate only 15% of the current estimated 404M iPhone installed base has upgraded to the new devices,” Walkley reports.

He estimates that Apple’s share will balloon to 650M iPhone users exiting calendar 2018. This would mean Apple will have had one third of the global smartphone user base using its iPhone.

In a clever infographic, Walkley further shows that Samsung, despite shipping tons of devices worldwide, has far smaller profit margins in Q4 compared to Apple. Most other competitors operated at no profit or even a negative margin, according to the Barron’s report citing Canaccord’s analyst.

Apple this year is expected to continue to fuel interest in its smartphone line with the release of an upgraded iPhone 6S line, while next year the company is expected to introduce an all-new model, likely to be dubbed iPhone 7.