Here are some interesting stats I stumbled upon. 

Apple (69%) and samsung(34%) captured 103% of the mobile OEM profits thanks to losses suffered by Blackberry (-230 million), Motorolla (-604 million), Sony (-536 million) and Nokia (-905 million).

LG and HTC managed 47 and 640 million profits. 

Looking at 4th quarter only, Nokia and Sony managed to profit while Motorolla and Blackberry are still bleeding money. 

Its pretty clear that unless it's Samsung or Apple, most OEM's are having a very tough time gaining marketshare and profiting regardless of the platform.

I find it that it's good to mix it up.

My last 6 smartphones dating from 2009 were Nokia E71, Motorolla Milestone, LG Optimus 7, Iphone 4, Samsung Focus, Samsung Focus S, Nokia Lumia 920.

On the Windows Phone side Nokia murders Samsung in features and hardware. Like I got Sonic CD the other day for free just cause I use Nokia and have access to 30+ actually usefull exclusive apps and games (most are free). 

My next phone will probably be Android. Come on HTC...do something nice at MWC.

I really like what Samsung has been doing with their phones lately.

Sony is having losses in many areas, that doesn't look too good.

I think some chinese brands will quickly rise, Huawei, ZTE..

Rise in marketshare? Certainly.

Rise in profit? Maybe eventually. 

The competitive advantage of these guys is that between creative accounting, state subsizidies, and a willingness to pursue growth at all costs, they're pretty happy as long as the margins don't go too far below zero.

Y'know, I just realized that Amazon basically runs itself like a Chinese company.

Now that I think about this, I think Nokia made the right choice going with Windows Phone.

Back in early 2011 when this decision is made, they were already late to the Android party and had a choice of being servant in heaven or a king in hell... They chose to rule the wasteland and are now by far the market leader on Windows Phone. Of course the 1 billion dollars per year Microsoft gave them made it a no contest. They would have to sell over 10 million high end Android Lumia's to make 1 billion dollars profit.

The fact they are profitable already and Windows Phone hasn't even taken off is a good sign. Even if in a few years time WP tops out at 10% smartphone marketshare which I think is highly possible...7% will be Nokia's.

It's still a gamble that could backfire, if Microsoft ditches the mobile business entirely or pulls some other crap like goes Android themselves lol.

I agree completely that Nokia was better off going WinPho than Android. Even back in those days, it was only Samsung and HTC making money. All the other OEMs were struggling. Though there is the question of whether Nokia might have been better off re-focusing on its own software. We can only wonder.

And I don't see MS ditching mobile unless their entire business collapses. They know mobile is the future, and they can't afford not to be a part of it, even if it takes years of burning cash to do it. This is more important than their fight against Google in online search, and look how much they've spent on that.

One can only wonder what would have happened if Nokia was more proactive in refocusing their smartphone business in house and a better platform. Symbian was not going to get them through but Meego was very promissing. But they were too late... The famous burning memo of early 2011 should have come in 2009.

Come to think of it, Meego and WebOS are like Dreamcasts of the smartphone industry. Lots of potential and ahead of the game for their time but they didn't have the support/funds to continue.  Back in 2010/2011 both WebOS and Meego were much better than Android 2.2 so it's a shame they didn't take off as the open source platform of choice.