The view inside Samsung is that the margins and growth in smartphones during 2012 and 2013 were abnormal, and that even the current depressed level of profitability is an achievement. Shaun Cochran, Korea country head of brokerage CLSA, finds merit in the argument. “There are two companies in the world that have a profitable position in smartphones, and they’re one of them,” he says. “The margins are no longer supermargins. But really, supermargins are temporary by nature. Only Apple gets them now.”