Despite a difficult end to 2016, Samsung remained the top smartphone seller by shipping a whopping 308.5 million units last year, according to Strategy Analytics. Apple is a distant second with 215.5 million iPhones.
However, high average selling prices and high margins gave Apple the lion’s share of the profits – close to 80% of worldwide profits from smartphones ended up in its pockets, some $44.9 billion out of $53.7 billion total.
In comparison, Samsung Mobile brought in 14.6% or $8.3 billion – a number certainly impacted by the Galaxy Note7 recall. Comparing operating profit…