Analyst: Apple Took 87 Percent of Phone Handset Profits Last Quarter

Patrick Seitz, reporting for Investors.com:

Apple and Samsung continue to soak up all the industry’s profits, McCourt says. Apple claimed 87.4% of phone earnings before interest and taxes in the fourth quarter, he said. Samsung took in 32.2% of industry profits. Because their combined earnings were higher than the industry’s total earnings as a result of many vendors losing money in Q4, Apple and Samsung mathematically accounted for more than 100% of the industry’s earnings.

That’s not even close to 100 percent. The rest of the industry is bleeding money. Makes me wonder what Apple’s share of tablet profits is. They’re like a profit monopolist — which, to my knowledge, is not actually a monopoly in any legal sense. Antitrust laws are set up for a world where market share and profit share are strongly correlated, which is not the case with Apple.

(Via Matt Yglesias.)

★ Wednesday, 12 February 2014