Apple, Samsung take all smartphone profits, leave only crumbs
By Patrick Seitz - Posted 12:20 PM ET
Apple ( AAPL) and Samsung continue to rake in all of the profits in the smartphone business,
while also-ran competitors lose money or operate at break-even.
Because other major vendors lost money in smartphones last quarter, the combined profits from
Apple and Samsung in the category were greater than the total industry's Q4 profits. So, through a
mathematical quirk, Apple and Samsung captured 101% of smartphone profits in the fourth
quarter and 103% for the full year, according to Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley.
Apple and Samsung's share of smartphone industry profits was 100% in Q1, 108% in Q2 and 106%
in Q3, Walkley said in a research note Wednesday. The two handset giants pulled away from the pack
last year. In 2010, they split just 59% of the industry's profits, with the percentage rising to 82% in 2011,
Walkley says.
Walkley's research on smartphone vendor profitability covers eight manufacturers. In addition to Apple
and Samsung, he surveys Nokia ( NOK), BlackBerry ( BBRY), Google's ( GOOG) Motorola, Sony ( SNE),
LG and HTC. Absent from the list are Chinese smartphone vendors Huawei and ZTE, which research
firm IDC listed as the Nos. 3 and 5 smartphone vendors worldwide in the fourth quarter. For the record,
Samsung was No. 1, Apple was No. 2 and Sony No. 4, IDC reported last month.
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