Falling Up

A massive sales increase of 128% last year vaulted Apple past Samsung to become the world’s #1 smartphone vendor.

Can you imagine how well Apple would have done if the iPhone 4S hadn’t been a flop?

ONE MORE THING: Does she work at all for the money? Not if we’re talking about Motorola, which Google is in the process of buying for $12 billion-with-a-b:

They shipped — shipped, not sold — 5.3 million smartphones in the quarter. As a reminder, Apple sold 37 million.

For the full year, Motorola shipped — shipped, not sold — 18.7 million smartphones. As a reminder, Apple sold 37 million smartphones last quarter.

They shipped — shipped, not sold — 200,000 tablets last quarter. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND. As a reminder, Apple sold 15 million tablets.

For the year, Motorola shipped — shipped, not sold — 1 million tablets. As a reminder, Apple sold 15 million tablets last quarter.

We talked earlier this week about channel-stuffing — well, here it is in action again. What should frighten Google is how Moto was able to stuff its channels with comparatively little product. But a little is still a lot, when you can’t sell it for a profit.