A new study from Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt shows that Apple (AAPL) is absolutely crushing its rivals where it matters most: the bottom line. According to McCourt’s numbers, Apple gobbled up an astonishing 77% of all profits generated by the mobile industry in the second quarter of 2012 while also accounting for 43% of its total revenues, All Things D reports. These numbers are particularly remarkable because Apple had relatively low iPhone sales of 26 million units last quarter while rival Samsung (005930) sold more than 50 million smartphones over the same period.
McCourt says that profitability is particularly vital because having more money means Apple can plug a lot more resources into research and development to keep itself one step ahead of the competition.
“Ultimately, profits are the feedstock of innovation; and, innovation drives profits,” he wrote. “Until Samsung starts generating more profits than Apple, we would not be overly concerned with who has the unit share lead. Remember, HP and Dell still sell a lot more PCs than Apple sells Macs, but does it matter?”