Apple and Research in Motion (RIM) accounted for 35 per cent of operating profits last year in the mobile industry, despite only selling three per cent of all the mobile phones globally.
This is according to Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff, who also estimated that the makers of the iPhone and BlackBerry will rise to five per cent of the handset market while increasing its share in total operating profits to 58 per cent, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The figures coincide with recent reports showing the rise of smartphones in the mobile market.
Symbian predicted in May that the smartphone market could grow by 12 to 15 per cent, citing larger displays and more memory for media content like music as the reason.
ARM, the global leader in chip manufacture, also said in the same month it expected the market to grow by 10 per cent.
While Blackberry still has a seat at the top table, a survey in June by CrowdScience showed four in ten of its users would switch to the rival iPhone.
A Gartner report this month showed that Nokia was the one to beat in numbers, currently having 40 per cent share in the smartphone market. However this too predicted iPhone would trump that by 2013.
