If you want to see how utterly futile it is for companies other than Apple and Samsung to make money selling mobile phones, look no further than the numbers posted by Asymco’s Horace Dediu that chart the profit share of smartphone manufacturers for the past six years. According to Dediu, the mobile phone industry generated $215 billion in net operating profits over the past six years and Apple and Samsung combined to devour 87.9% of them. Apple was particularly dominant, as it generated around $133 billion in profits, or just under 62% of the total. Samsung trailed far behind but still generated a healthy $56 billion in profits, or around 26% of the total. As for everyone else? Well, it



More...