The global premium smartphone average selling price rose 8% YoY to $780 in Q2 2022, driven by sales of $1,000+ devices; Apple captured 57% of the premium market
- The global premium smartphone market ($400 and above wholesale price) average selling price (ASP) grew 8% YoY to reach $780, a second-quarter record, in Q2 2022.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Q2 2022 increase in premium-phone ASP extends Apple’s earlier strength at the high end: it had accounted for 88% of $800-plus handset sales in the cited Q2 high-end sales breakdown. The immediate significance is that sales of $1,000-plus devices were lifting the premium segment’s revenue per unit while Apple held a 57% share.
Subsequent coverage shows the pattern persisted even as premium-unit growth was modest: premium phones surpassed half of smartphone-market revenue in 2022, with Apple at 75% of the segment as premium phones became a majority of industry revenue.
First-order effects
- Apple’s 57% premium-market share gives it the largest direct exposure to the $780 segment ASP, concentrating the revenue benefit from the shift toward $1,000-plus phones.
- Premium competitors must sell more convincingly at the top end as higher-priced devices, rather than broader premium volume alone, drive the segment’s pricing.
Second-order effects
- The premium segment’s rising ASP increases the value of price realization for Apple and its rivals, making revenue share more sensitive to high-end product mix than to unit growth.
- Apple’s later 75% share of the 2022 premium market suggests that the 2022 pricing shift reinforced its advantage, while Samsung and Huawei were left competing for a smaller portion of premium demand.
Third-order effects
- If premium devices continue to take a larger share of smartphone revenue, handset competition increasingly centers on sustaining high-end pricing and mix rather than maximizing shipments.
- The later rise in overall smartphone ASP to $400 alongside Apple’s 49% share of global handset revenue shows premiumization reaching the broader market, though the supplied coverage does not isolate the drivers across all price tiers.
The trend: Smartphone revenue is becoming more concentrated in premium devices and in Apple, as high-end pricing contributes more to market value than unit growth.