Apple took home 72% of all handset profits last quarter

Samsung had 29%, according to Canaccord Genuity. The rest got nothing.

Data: Canaccord Genuity for Q4 2012

FORTUNE -- Can you spot the problem with the pie chart at right? If you noticed that the two slices add up to more than 100%, you're on the right track.

Last quarter, Apple (AAPL) and Samsung so dominated the worldwide market for mobile phones (smart and dumb) that the rest of the manufacturers -- including Nokia (NOK), Motorola (GOOG), BlackBerry (BBRY), Sony (SNE), LG and HTC -- either broke even or lost money.

That's just one of the notable findings in a report issued Tuesday by Canaccord Genuity's T. Michael Walkley. A few other highlights:

• Apple took home 72% of the profits with only 21.7% of unit sales (up from 15.4% in Q3).
• Samsung's 29% of the profits came from 28.9% of unit sales (down from 32.3% in Q3).
• 43 cents of every dollar spent in the world on a cellphone in Q4 ended up in Apple's coffers.
• Samsung got 36 cents. Nokia got 7 cents. All the rest got less than 5.
• For 2013, Walkley predicts that Apple and Samsung will split 103% of the profits, 69/34.

Posted in: Apple, Canaccord Genuity, Galaxy, Handsets, iPhone, Mobile, Profits, Samsung

• Apple's declining profitability: Structural or seasonal?

  Morgan Stanley finds evidence that Apple's margins will improve before the end of 2013

  FORTUNE -- Apple's (AAPL) quarterly gross margin -- the measure of how efficiently a company turns sales into profits -- peaked in March 2012 at an astonishing 47.4%, along with its quarterly stock performance (up 29%).

  But what goes up must come down, and when Apple warned Wall Street that its margins were likely to fall -- to MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 4, 2013 6:48 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, GM, Gross margin, Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley, Profits

• Apple vs. Amazon: Bizzaro valuations revisited

  The value the market assigns these two companies gets more absurd each quarter

  FORTUNE -- Last week, Apple's profits grew and its share price plummeted. This week, Amazon's profits plummeted and its share price soared.

  Confused? So was much of the business press. Consider this matched pair of headlines:

  Reuters: "Amazon shares set record after strong quarterly profit"

  Fortune: "Amazon profits take a dive"

  The New York Times offered what may be MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 29, 2013 11:00 PM ET
  Posted in: Amazon, Apple, Apple Inc., Profits

• Pie chart of the day: Apple's share of smartphone profits

  "Apple and Samsung are the only investable smartphone brands" -- Citi Research

  FORTUNE -- Things look grim for everybody but Apple (AAPL) and Samsung in the profitable segment of the smartphone market, according to a note to clients issued Tuesday by a team from Citi Research. The pie chart above and the paragraph below say it all:

  Smartphone Market Faces Dramatic Structural Changes - At the high end (US$500+), Apple and Samsung MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 11, 2012 10:07 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Citi, iPhone, Profits, Samsung, smartphone

• Silicon Valley's new fashion: The stock dividend

  Over the past two decades, investing earnings in buybacks or future growth has trumped the stodgy old dividend ­ and nowhere more so than in the tech industry. That is changing.

  By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

  FORTUNE -- As long as there have been dividends, there have been arguments between shareholders and company managers over whether to pay them. The strongest argument against paying dividends was profit growth: If a company can reinvest MORE

  Jun 29, 2012 6:44 AM ET
  Posted in: AAPL, Apple, Ben Graham, Dell, Dividends, Earnings, growth, IBM, Profits, stocks, tech, value investing

• Why are blue-chip tech stocks so blue?

  May -- not April -- was the cruelest month for quality tech stocks. And not just because of the botched Facebook IPO.

  By Kevin Kelleher, contributor

  FORTUNE -- April, as T.S. Eliot famously said, is the cruelest month. But for investors who put their faith in tech stocks, it's hard to look back on the past month and feel good. No, the merry month of May has been cruel. And there's MORE

  May 31, 2012 6:01 AM ET
  Posted in: Cisco, Cloud, csco, Dell, Earnings, Hewlett-Packard, HPQ, Mobile, Oracle, ORCL, Profits, stocks, tech, tech stocks

• Apple's Asia-Pacific profits grew 2,991% in the past 5 years

  In Japan, its profits grew 1,156% between 2005 and 2010. Europe's were up 1,518%

  "Apple's international sales are simply on fire"

  So wrote the Motley Fool's Erik Bleeker Monday in a piece assessing Apple's (AAPL) overseas demand.

  It is, as he puts it, exploding.

  This will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following COO Tim Cook's Q&As with analysts, where he's been highlighting Apple's growth in the Japanese and Asia Pacific MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 28, 2011 7:38 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Asia, Asia Pacific, Erik Bleeker, International, Japan, Mac, Macintosh, Motley Fool, Pie chart, Profits, Sales, Tim Cook

• Apple hits No. 35 in Fortune 500

  Up 21 slots from 2009. If ranked by profits, rather than revenues, it would be No. 8

  Apple (AAPL) catapulted into the top 50 U.S. companies in the 2011 edition of the Fortune 500 released Friday. The rankings are based on revenues from the most recent fiscal year -- in Apple's case, the one that ended Sept. 2010. If profits had been the criterion, Apple would have come in eighth, right MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 6, 2011 6:21 PM ET
  Posted in: Adam Lashinsky, Apple, Financials, Fortune 500, Profits, Revenue, Steve Jobs