Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) investors have waited for months for the iPhone X to arrive. Now that it’s here, they are on the lookout for any piece of information they can get about how the iPhone X and iPhone 8 are performing in the market, and the latest survey data from Canaccord Genuity suggests the iPhone X may be selling even better than expected.
Analyst T. Michael Walkley says his most recent iPhone survey suggests a happy holidays ahead for Apple investors.
“We believe initial iPhone X demand is very strong with decreasing lead times indicating ramping production, and we maintain our 78.5 million December quarter iPhone estimate,” Walkley says.
[See: 7 of the Best Stocks to Buy for 2018.]
He also says Apple is tightening its grip on the global smartphone market.
“We believe Apple continues to grow its leading market share of the premium-tier smartphone market with double-digit growth of its installed base during the quarter,” he says, “and believe the iPhone installed base will exceed 635 million exiting 2017.”
According to his report, Apple, Samsung and Chinese device maker Huawei have a dominant lead in global smartphone market share. Canaccord estimates that Apple captured 72 percent of total North American smartphone profits in the third quarter, up from 68 percent in the second quarter. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Walkley says Apple should nab a “much stronger” share of the profits due to the higher prices of iPhone X models, which start at $999.
Walkley says Samsung is a distant second place in the North American high-end phone market, but Samsung remains the global smartphone market share leader in terms of unit sales. Canaccord estimates Samsung captured 20.2 percent of global share in 2017 compared to 13.3 percent for Apple and 10.1 percent for Huawei. No other company had a double-digit share.
Apple’s iPhone average sales price in the third quarter was $618, nearly three times the average sales prices of Samsung devices.
[Read: 7 Best Companies to Invest in Smartphones.]
Looking ahead to 2019, Canccord estimates the market shares of Apple and Samsung will decline modestly to 13 percent and 18.9 percent, respectively. Huawei’s market share will grow to 11.4 percent in that time..
Walkley says the total global smartphone market will expand by 8 percent in 2018 and another 4.8 percent in 2019.
For now, Apple investors can sit back, enjoy the ride and await official iPhone sales updates from the company. Canaccord has a “buy” rating and $195 price target for Apple stock.
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Apple Inc. (AAPL) Solidifies Hold on Smartphone Market originally appeared on usnews.com
