Samsung, Apple Walk Away With 90 Percent Of Smartphone Profits In Q1 2012, Says ABI Research

Despite the rapid growth of the smartphone market (41 percent YOY, to be exact), Samsung and Apple are the only smartphone makers really enjoying this growth. Combined, they took home 55 percent of global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2012. More importantly, they’re walking away with 90 percent of the market’s profits.

Surprisingly, however, Samsung and Sony were the only OEMs to see any sequential growth in shipments. Even more surprising, RIM (of all companies) is set to surpass Nokia, despite the fact that both companies saw a decrease in shipments, 20 percent and 40 percent respectively.

According to senior ABI analyst Michael Morgan, “at this point in the year, Nokia will have to grow its Windows Phone business 5000% in 2012 just to offset its declines in Symbian shipments.”

In the first quarter, Samsung came out on top with 43 million global shipments, followed by Apple with 35 million shipments. Trailing far behind, Nokia and Rim shipped 11.9 million and 11.1 million units respectively, followed closely by Sony and Huawei, with 7 million and 6.8 million shipments respectively.

Nokia is seriously struggling of late, as proven by yesterday’s headlines, after ditching Symbian and transitioning to Microsoft’s mobile operating system. RIM has been floundering for about the same amount of time, trying desperately to revive itself with BB10.

On the other hand, Samsung and Apple’s success is only expected to grow with the looming launches of the Samsung Galaxy S III and iPhone 5.