Forum > Manufacturer Discussion > Samsung > Apple&Samsung are still crushing every other smartphone vendor

At some point some vendor besides Apple or Samsungwill make money selling smartphones… right? Business Insider points us to the latest numbers from Canaccord Genuity showing that Apple and Samsung now account for 103% of all smartphone industry profits. What this means is that every other major smartphone vendor — from HTC to Nokia to BlackBerry to Motorola — is either breaking even or losing money selling smartphones.

This isn’t a new development, of course, but it’s an indication that Apple and Samsung’s rivals have been unable to gain any traction this year despite releasing a slew of new high-end devices such as the HTC One, the BlackBerry Z10 and the Nokia Lumia 1020. It’s also useful to remember that as recently as two years ago, BlackBerry, Nokia and HTC were all still making money selling smartphones while Samsung’s smartphone profits accounted for less than 30% of total profits. Last quarter, by contrast, Samsung’s smartphone profits accounted for 50% of total profits.

If you’re noticing a recurring theme at the end of each quarter, you’re not alone. As contenders like Nokia, LG, BlackBerry and HTC battle for scraps in the global mobile handset market, Samsung and Apple continue to dominate by a massive margin. Samsung recently posted record results for the second quarter thanks to the launch of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone and Apple shocked Wall Street when it beat estimates due to iPhone sales that came in much higher than expected. And as illustrated in the chart from mobile analyst Benedict Evans that follows below, Apple and Samsung continued to absolutely trounce the competition when it comes to handset revenue.


BlackBerry and Sony haven’t reported their most recent quarters yet, but industry watchers’ expectations suggest this picture won’t be changing anytime soon.

Now that the quarterly results reporting is almost behind us, we are getting the first recaps of how the phone and tablet makers are doing. Canaccord Genuity just came up with a chart that clearly shows how Apple's once dominant share of the smartphone industry profits is slowly eroding, mainly for the sake of Samsung.

Last year, Apple scored 71% of the operating profit in the field, leaving Samsung with 37%. This past quarter, however, Samsung has almost caught up to Apple's low 50s profit share (the total is more than 100%, since a few companies are actually losing money). Seasonality plays a big part in those numbers, of course, as Apple always dips before the introduction of the annual iPhone, whereas Samsung's latest flagship has had a quarter or two headstart to pad the bottomline. This year the gap in profits is record close, though, even for Q2 results.

Where does that leave the rest - well, everyone else is either breaking even, or bleeding cash, like Motorola and BlackBerry, save for a few bright spots with minimum profit, like LG and today's Sony results , plus the Chinese juggernauts.