The profit Apple makes by selling an iPhone is about five times the profit Samsung makes by selling a Galaxy smartphone, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research.

As a result, Apple is accounting for close to 60% of the total operating profits of the global smartphone market.

According to Counterpoint Research, Apple made a profit of US$151 per smartphone in the market in the third quarter of this year whereas the profit per unit of Samsung Electronics was US$31 and those of Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi were US$15, US$14, US$13 and US$2, respectively. This means that Apple represented 59.8% of the total operating profits of the global smartphone market during the period although the ratio fell from 85.9% from a year earlier.

The ratio of Samsung Electronics rose from 0% to 25.9% during the same period. In the third quarter of 2016, the production of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was stopped to result in the zero percent profit share. Huawei's operating profit share rose from 3.3% to 4.9%. On the contrary, those of Oppo and Vivo fell from 4.2% to 4.0% and from 3.7% to 3.1%, respectively.

"In the third quarter of this year, Chinese smartphone manufacturers' combined operating profits exceeded US$1.5 billion for the first time ever," the market research firm explained, adding, "This means a significant change in the market in that Samsung Electronics and Apple had accounted for most of the profits until the previous quarter."