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Last year, Asian handset makers like Huawei and Lenovo gained major traction in the mobile phone business. Yet Samsung Electronics and Apple, the top two handset makers in the world, made all of the industry’s profits last quarter.

Talk about a brutal industry.

Tavis McCourt, an analyst for Raymond James, estimates that Apple claimed 87.4 percent of phone earnings in the fourth quarter, while Samsung took in 32.2 percent of industry profits. (The numbers add up to more than 100 percent because Apple and Samsung combined made more money than other competitors lost.)

T. Michael Walkley, an analyst for the investment firm Canaccord Genuity, came up with similar numbers. He estimated that Apple, which charges a premium for its products, took in 76 percent of industry profit compared to 32 percent by Samsung.

Apple and Samsung have sucked up the vast majority of industry profit for years. Last quarter was especially strong for Apple thanks to record sales of its iPhones. But even though Samsung sold fewer flagship smartphones than it expected last quarter, it still managed to take in the rest of the industry’s profit.

Meanwhile, for the full year of 2013, Huawei, the Chinese handset maker, grew sales to stay No. 3 in the worldwide market, according to IDC. Lenovo, another Chinese vendor, soared to become No. 4 in the worldwide market and LG, the South Korean manufacturer, fell to No. 5.

Lesson of the story: Market share does not translate into profit.