Apple’s earnings show us just how bad things are right now for smartphone makers

Apple’s earnings show us just how bad things are right now for smartphone makers:

HTC and BlackBerry each reported dismal Christmas-quarter results — but they're both terminal losers. Nokia turned in a shocking sequential smartphone unit decline in Q4 — but that's another vendor in trouble. We saw LG report a surprise loss in its mobile division — but that company is also a bit wobbly. Smartphone behemoth Samsung even delivered a sequential handset sales decline last quarter... but, umm, maybe that was because Apple did so spectacularly well?

Except Apple just missed the iPhone volume consensus by more than 6 million units for the Christmas quarter.



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