divicoded:
Madam, why are you behaving like a flat&head?
Are you from the republic of biafrauud? This is not nice. Leave stealing for the thieves

But all of you are monkeys, imagine and ape claiming to be better than a gorilla, you and your filthy black skin should be jumping up and down in the jungle not handling phones

kansul abi ?, what if i have 30 billion in my account , you go still gree kansul ? abi u go remember say boxer na ya problem ?

why the f**k does this s**t have to be of concern to anyone

who cares

Mariangeles:
It's a free world... they can hunt whatever they damn well please!
Of what use are the hyenas to us...? some animals have gone extinct and the world still carry on...

Modified: For all those quoting me, I still stand by my opinion...animals are meant to be hunted or else they will outnumber humans!
A world where wild animals mean more than humans is a messed up world.

OHH AFRICA MAN, AND IF DEM BEGIN CALL YOU MONKEY, U GO DEY JUMP DEY BEGIN DEY VEX

who gives a f**k about those backward skinhead barbarian racists muthaf**kaz dying, the more they die the better.

You wey your skin black make you carry yourself go their country you go see the thing wey dem go take your eye see.

Una dey here dey pity people wey dem dey teach dem for their school say black man and APE na the same thing.

Did you people not read the eligibility criteria ?, it clearly states that monkeys need not apply, or because you call yourself yoruba your monkeyness is less than fulani own ? all una skin colour the same for thia eye

BT Sport will make the UEFA Champions League Final free to stream on YouTube this weekend.

The all-Spanish final between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid will be shown live on BT Sport, btsport.com and the BT Sport YouTube channel on Saturday May 28th 2016 from 6pm.

This marks the first time the ultimate game in club football will be streamed live on a social media platform.

JOSE MOURINHO has reportedly agreed a deal to take over Manchester United at the start of next season.

The Portuguese, who was sacked by Chelsea in December, has been heavily linked with a move to Old Trafford.

And according to German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, he has now finally come to an agreement with United, signing a three-year deal.

They say: “The Portuguese has signed until 2019. It lacks only the confirmation of the English club.”

If Mourinho does move to United he will bring to and end Louis van Gaal’s reign at Old Trafford.

Van Gaal has come under huge pressure this term, with United exiting the Champions League at the group stages and facing a battle to make the Premier League’s top four.

The Red Devils currently sit fifth in the Premier League table, but their chances of Champions League football were boosted yesterday after they secured a 1-0 win to relegate Aston Villa.

Bild add that Mourinho is now targeting Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic as his priority summer signing.

Ibrahimovic, who is out of contract with PSG in the summer and has been linked with a move to United, worked with Mourinho at Inter Milan.

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/661791/Jose-Mourinho-agrees-deal-take-over-Man-United-transfer-news-gossip

The Chelsea midfielder is part of the furniture at Stamford Bridge, but has found a new lease of life following the departure of Jose Mourinho

As the Fifa Ballon d’Or ceremony draws closer, the eyes of the world will be drawn once more to the world’s most predictable soap opera. The cast is well known, the props are all the same and the outcome is all but certain before the winner is announced. It is an acknowledgement of superhuman feats, but if simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, then there should be an award for Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel.
His display in the 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday served as a perfect reminder of his abilities; in truth, we might be forgiven for having forgotten them - so infrequently has he featured in a meaningful way this season. Unwaveringly consistent, durable if not especially lustrous, the Nigeria international is one of Europe’s most hardy footballers.

Roman Abramovich has built Chelsea into a genuine powerhouse on the continent, achieved - at least in part - by altogether avoiding complacency that can come with a long-serving manager. We have seen Jose Mourinho twice, Luis Felipe Scolari, Avram Grant, Guus Hiddink now in a second spell, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and Rafa Benitez warm the home dugout at Stamford Bridge.

Only two players have seen them all out: captain John Terry, and Mikel.

If Terry is Mr. Chelsea, the Lord of the Cobham Manor, then Mikel is the wise butler, a picture of servile promptitude, retreating into the shadows when unneeded but secure in his indispensability. The return of Hiddink has been greeted in the Chelsea fold with the enthusiasm reserved for the visit of a favourite uncle, and the Dutch manager has no doubt noted with warm relief that his slippers are laid out just as he wants, and his bath is run at just the right temperature.

His short stint in 2009, culminating in an FA Cup triumph and cut short in the Champions League semi-final by Andres Iniesta’s late strike, coincided with Mikel’s most productive season (in terms of appearances) at Chelsea. The 28-year-old made 34 league appearances that term, and started 10 of Hiddink’s 13 Premier League games in charge.

Much has changed since then, not least the playing personnel, but Hiddink has again found Mikel, an older and wiser version no less, useful to the cause of rescuing a team in a perilous nosedive under Jose Mourinho. Already, Mikel has played more minutes in the three games (225) since the former Netherlands boss was parachuted in than he managed the entire season prior to the Dutchman's arrival.

While many players, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa primary among them, might have been relieved with Mourinho's departure, Mikel looks to be the Chelsea star to benefit the most.

His partnership with Cesc Fabregas in front of the back four at Selhurst Park provided the platform for the reigning champions’ most convincing performance of the season so far. Not the sort of assertive personality to consistently dictate games, Mikel thrives with a more progressive passer, allowing him to focus on the simple things.

He completed seven ball recoveries and 78 of 82 attempted passes. Contrary to the popular criticism of his play, half of those passes were played forward, and he also demonstrated his efficiency under pressure by completing eight out of nine in the attacking third of the pitch.

After the game, Hiddink identified Mikel as the "ideal" player who can “bring balance to the team”. His plans in the team already seems cemented for the remainder of the Dutchman's reign.

Having been heavily linked to a move abroad in the summer, it would appear reports of Mikel’s demise have been greatly overstated. With previous incumbent Nemanja Matic seemingly afflicted by second-season syndrome, the Nigeria midfielder may once again best another competitor by sheer forbearance.

Since Mikel moved to Stamford Bridge in 2006, the following midfielders have all been and gone: Michael Ballack, Michael Essien, Claude Makelele, Frank Lampard, Lassana Diarra, Steve Sidwell, Juan Sebastian Veron, Deco, Oriol Romeu and Raul Meireles. The so-called 'African Zidane', however, remains.

Considering the Blues' midfield has struggled for the right balance all season long, there is no better argument for a Fabregas-Mikel solution – at least till the end of the current campaign – than the Palace performance.

In a world of ultimatums and tantrums, Mikel has, in refreshing fashion, simply gone and made himself useful again.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1862/premier-league/2016/01/05/18994922/mikel-soaring-again-hiddinks-super-eagle-brings-the-perfect?ICID=HP_TS_1

ITbomb:
Terrible analysis.
MAC was for targeted users, Windows was for everyone, who won? Windows

And the analogy with a child is pure rubbish. There is a better chance of bringing up a well educated child with siblings than a lonely over pampered child.

Apple is surviving on purely American pride, outside USA, it is basically useless

the Mac is a computer operating on the ios operating system , windows is the os operating on nearly every other computer ,apple owns both the mac and ios ,microsoft ,the creator of windows owns only the os which the computers run on and not the computer itself except the surface tablet, microsoft does not own dell,hp,acer,sony,lenovo,toshiba etc

the value of apple is twice the value of microsoft ,the annual revenue of apple is twice the revenue of microsoft , please refer to the financial times or forbes for more information , can you kindly explain to us how windows won ?

a company that is "surviving on purely american pride" simply cannot be the most valuable company in the world, (valued by investors at $733 billion)

there is no need to expose your limited knowledge of what is going on beyond the shores of wherever you are from on this forum

Na which one come be Toyota Jeep again ?? People wey no gree go school the time wey dem suppose go school dey come here dey show dia sef

morereb10:
Vincent Enyeama's wife Promise took to instagram to speak on her man quitting the national team.

"Yes! You did well! Hold your head up high my love! I'm so proud of you and your dedicated service to your fatherland for 13 good years. I have witnessed your passion and commitment firsthand.

You spent sleepless nights just to analyze every goal you conceded, even if there was nothing you could do to save them. You played through injuries, pains and fatigue. You took the bullets of unjust criticisms, biased and false reporting/information, just to let peace reign.

You missed important family moments to honor national call-ups. Thank God for the opportunity/privilege to serve the nation. Thank God for the strength/skill to carry out your duties. Thank God for all the memories (good and bad). You leave as a hero. You bow out as a legend. Our children, grandchildren and future generations will hear and speak of your great deeds. God bless you my husband. God bless Nigeria." she wrote.






https://instagram.com/p/8k5Q7IA1o-/

She says he played through injury , pains and fatigue , if you are injured, in pain or fatigued then there is no need to play , that's the reason why there are reserve goalkeepers in every team, every player should be at 100% when playing for the national teams , playing with an injury is a diservice to the nation , that's probably why he conceded so many unnecessary painful goals during his time so there's no need to have sleepless nights analysing those cheap goals when you were injured or fatigued .

Nsonaso:
I wonder why people still buy that ugly thing despite the Exorbitant price tag.... In deed Apple is enjoying goodwill

lol, you and your sufferman sense

Na who go buy am, all d people wey dey europe ,north america, japan or china wey dey buy new phone in the millions wey dey buy am before don dey buy iphone (74.3 million sold in 3 months ), other people wey like cheap thing go go buy samsung and all d hauwei chinko phone , how many afrika people dey buy new phone ? na new phone the people wey dey make d phone they use measure success.

Defaramade:
If the phone is priced reasonably well I think it will be a success. The watertight security of BlackBerry combined with the flexibility & popularity of Android is a strong recipe for success.

Electronics giant Samsung has seen its net profit drop by 8% for the second quarter of the year.

Profit for the quarter from April to June fell to 5.75tn won (£3.2bn, $4.9bn), down 8% from last year.

The results are in line with the South Korean company's earnings guidance, given earlier this month.

The firm's smartphone section continues to suffer from stiff competition from the mega selling, record breaking Apple's iPhone and cheaper Chinese rivals.

The result marks the fifth straight quarterly profit drop for the company.

"While the numbers are in line with what's been expected, the real story is that Samsung used to be this huge industry giant, dominating the smartphone field. And now that giant seems to be tumbling under pressure from Apple in the top-segment and cheaper Chinese competitors," Bryan Ma, vice president of client devices research at technology consultants IDC, told the BBC.

He said the company could in theory compete with the cheaper Chinese rivals "but it would hurt their margins. And then, even with good sales, it would hurt their profit."

"When it comes to competing with the iPhone - Apple has an entire ecosystem around their devices which Samsung just doesn't have."

Profit for the mobile division though fell to 2.76tn won from 4.42tn won a year earlier.

Samsung said that sales of its Galaxy S6 smartphone fell short of expectations because the company could not meet the demand for its flagship model.

According to the vice president for mobile business, Park Jin-Young, the company hopes to see its phone sales increase in the coming quarter with new large-screen and budget models to be launched.

Samsung has seen profits sag since late 2013 due to increasing competition in the smartphone market the company had dominated for years.

What used to drive the company, Ma explains, was their strength in hardware and engineering.

"That's what gave them the edge in the past - they were for instance ahead of Apple with their large screen phablets. If they manage to stay ahead of the curve, they can still turn things around."

The firm's best performance for the quarter came from its semiconductor department, helping to narrow the profit decline.

34

A LOGIC puzzle, which stumps adults but can be worked out in twenty seconds by kids

The brainteaser is originally from a primary school test - and youngsters can solve it in 20 seconds or less, according to reports.

The puzzle forms part of an admissions test, determining which elementary school in Hong Kong children will attend.

It shows a picture of ‘parking spaces’. The numbers 16, 06, 68, 88 are in the boxes, but a car covers the other figure.

The reason kids can crack it but adults find it more difficult, apparently lies in the way grown ups perceive it to involve complex maths - but children think more simply.

So who can tell us the answer to missing number

Charleston police say nine people have been killed in a shooting at a historic black church in what authorities intend to investigate as a hate crime.
Police Chief Greg Mullen says eight people were found dead Wednesday at Emanuel AME Church and another person died later at the hospital.
Mullen says a prayer meeting was going on at the church at the time of the shooting.
The shooter, described as a white male, was not yet in custody.
___
12:45 a.m. (EDT)
Mayor Joseph P. Riley has confirmed to The Associated Press that police have told him nine are dead in a shooting at a historic black church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.
Riley said he will release more details shortly at a news conference with Charleston police.
Police were still looking for the suspect in the Wednesday night shooting at Emanuel AME Church.
__
12:30 a.m. (EDT)
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has responded to the shooting in downtown Charleston.
"While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we'll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another," she said in a statement early Thursday morning.
Police were still searching for a white male suspect.
___
12:09 a.m. (EDT)
The Post and Courier newspaper reports that Mayor Joe Riley has confirmed there are fatalities in a shooting that occurred at the site of a church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.
Riley called the Wednesday night shooting "an unspeakable and heartbreaking tragedy."
An Associated Press reporter on the scene said police were moving members of the media on the site back because of an "imminent" threat.
GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush has canceled Thursday events in the area because of the shooting.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/latest-charleston-shooting-mayor-confirms-fatalities-042057307.html

Jim Balsillie reveals that the release of Apple's iPhone was devastating for the company
BlackBerry 's co-founder has admitted that the release of Apple's iPhone and his company's rushed attempts to match it were devastating for the mobile phone firm.
Jim Balsillie, who was also co-chief executive of Research in Motion before it changed its name to BlackBerry, said in his first public remarks since leaving the company in 2012 that he knew his company couldn't compete with the iPhone after it was released in 2007.
He added that the Storm, BlackBerry's buggy touchscreen device that was meant to rival Apple's iconic device, had a "100pc return rate".
Mr Balsillie said the impact of rushing the Storm out was devastating, and Verizon, their largest customer, fired them over it.
"With Storm we tried to do too much. It was a touch display, it was a clickable display, it had new applications, and it was all done in an incredibly short period of time and it blew up on us," he said. "That was the time I knew we couldn't compete on high end hardware."
Pioneered in 1999, the original BlackBerry phone changed telecommunications by allowing on-the-go business people to access email wirelessly.
The BlackBerry Storm
However, it has since struggled in the face of competition from Apple and Google.

Analysts have predicted that the number of people in the UK using BlackBerry's operating system will decline dramatically this year , dipping below 1m users for the first time in many years.
eMarketer's latest forecast of mobile phone usage indicates that BlackBerry now has as few as 700,000 users in the UK, with this number expected to fall to 400,000 by 2017.
In the past two years alone, BlackBerry's UK market share has fallen from 8pc to less than 2pc.
The company unveiled its BlackBerry Classic handset in December, following on from the square Passport last year, which impressed investors if not consumers.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/blackberry-co-founder-iphone-rival-222747352.html

It's a shame to see so many people who don't understand boxing here but it's a mainstream event so it comes with the territory I guess.
"I think Floyd won easily and has always been better than Pacquiao, finally the debate is over, we can all move on and decide where Floyd ranks in the top five of all time boxers.
"I think it's disgraceful that the first thing Manny did was complain about his injury. News flash to all those who aren't well acquainted with the sport, most boxers are carrying some kind of injury into the fight. If it's truly serious the fight will be postponed or cancelled (e.g. broken bone or cut around eyes) but if it's not you continue with the fight and cannot use that injury as an excuse.
"Throughout the promotion there have been amazing double standards involved, saying Floyd has slowed and down due to the manner of his two wins against Maidana whereas Pacquiao is still considered amazing following his loss by KO to Marquez. If Floyd lost and blamed a shoulder he would be ridiculed. I hope we do the same to Manny since the reverse is the case."

In total Mayweather threw 435 punches and 149 hit target , Pacquiao threw 429 and 81 hit.

Round 1

Mayweather in black and gold trunks, Pacquiao in yellow trunks with red trim. Floyd tags Manny with two rights early. Looks very quick. Mayweather gets inside and clips Pacquiao with a hard right hand and gets out before Pacquiao knows what’s happened. Mayweather looking very quick and sharp early. Pacquiao hasn’t found hs range. Pacquiao doesn’t know how to get inside without exposing himself to Floyd’s accurate and punishing right hand. Floyd making Pacquiao think twice about going inside. Manny getting frustrated already.

Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao (Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao)


Round 2

Manny lunges forward pell-mell but Mayweather sidesteps it easily. Pacquiao starts to corner him but Mayweather bites back wtih two quick chopping left hands. Mayweather wraps Manny up to loud boos from the crowd. Floyd is just so quick. Pacquiao doing a better job of cutting off the ring, marginally. Pacquiao’s feet too slow right now. Now more loud chants of Manny! Manny! as Mayweather moves backward into a corner and Manny follows him in. Mayweather doing damage with that right hand. Pacquiao connects with a hard left at the end of the round, his best punch yet.

Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao (Mayweather 20-18 Pacquiao)


Round 3

Floyd’s right hand is the story. He’s controlling the fight with it. Fighting brilliantly. Pacquiao rushed Mayweather into a corner but Floyd wraps him up again, looking stronger when he does it. Pacquiao not throwing enough punches. Referee Kenny Bayless warns Mayweather for holding Pacquiao’s head down. Manny doing better work here, winning an exchange near the end of the round. But not enough.

Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao (Mayweather 30-27 Pacquiao)


Round 4

Can Manny Pacquiao get past Floyd Mayweather’s right hand is the fight within the fight. Floyd misses with a vicious right cross thrown with bad intentions. Pacquiao connects with a straight left that knocks Mayweather back! Mayweather might be hurt! Pacquiao unloads a lightning-fast combination on Mayweather reeling against the ropes, a few of which connect through his turtle shell defense. Mayweather nods his head when he emerges, but he looks like he was hurt. Pacquiao getting to Floyd this round! When Mayweather gets too defensive, it opens up opportunities for Pacquiao. And just when it looked like we were settling into another Floyd Mayweather clinic, we’ve got ourselves a fight.

Mayweather 9-10 Pacquiao (Mayweather 39-37 Pacquiao)


Round 5

Mayweather looking noticeably slower than he did in the opening rounds but still connecting with right hands and doing a much better job of staying off the ropes. Mayweather holds Manny behind the head again. No warning from Bayless. Jabbing, defending, keeping away from Pacquiao. After a very active fourth round, Pacquiao has been quiet this round. And it thusly goes to Floyd.

Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao (Mayweather 49-46 Pacquiao)


Round 6

Pacquiao tries to pick up the pace immediately after the bell but isn’t cutting off the ring very well and his swings at air. Mayweather hurt with a left cross! He’s backed against the ropes and Pacquiao throws more two-handed combinations to the head and body at lightning speed. Mayweather nods his head as if it say he’s not hurt, but no question Manny touched him there. An easy round to score for Pacquiao.

Mayweather 9-10 Pacquiao (Mayweather 58-56 Pacquiao)


Round 7

Mayweather touching up Manny here, showing against he’s having his best moments when acting as the aggressor. Mayweather holds again, no warning. Floyd connects with a right hook. Another left from Pacquiao opens a cut on Mayweather’s lip. That’s blood. Floyd dictating with his jab and boxing beautifully but Manny taking the fight when he sees an opportunity. Very close round, maybe an even round but I’ll give to Pacquiao.

Mayweather 9-10 Pacquiao (Mayweather 67-66 Pacquiao)


Round 8

A two-punch combo for Manny connects but he can’t follow up. Pacquiao starting to counter Mayweather’s right, but then he walks into a straight right. Mayweather’s reach increasingly becoming the defining trait of the fight. Floyd rebounds nicely, mixing up playing the aggressor and counterpunching. Lot of close rounds here. Scorecards will be interesting. I’ll give it to Floyd.

Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao (Mayweather 77-75 Pacquiao)



Round 9

Pacquiao’s head movement has slowed and that could be a problem. Mayweather on his bicycle and Manny chasing him around the ring. Not much has happeend in first 90 seconds. Chants of Manny! Manny! as Mayweather lands a right counter. Pacquiao gets Floyd up against the ropes and squares him up but Mayweather escapes out the back door before Manny can open fire. “Walk him down champ!” screams a Money Team member in crowd. Pacquiao gets Mayweather up against the ropes near the end of the round and throws a combination that might not have hurt Floyd but looked good enough to score. Still, Floyd doing just enough to win the rounds.

Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao (Mayweather 87-84 Pacquiao)



Round 10

Pacquiao walks Mayweather into a corner and opens fire but the punches disappear into Mayweather’s artful defense. Manny just can’t get away from that right hand. A hard left lands for Manny but it seems like he’s tiring here. Floyd throwing some heavy punches here but missing. Manny coming straight in, a very linear attack. Tailor-made for Floyd. I have it seven rounds to three for Pacquiao which means a draw is out of the cards and it’s time for Pacquiao to go for broke.

Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao (Mayweather 97-93 Pacquiao)



Round 11

Floyd strikes very early in the round with a hard two-punch combination upstairs. Mayweather has found a second wind, pot-shotting beautifully here. Pacquiao slowing but doing enough with aggression to make it close. Too much waiting for Manny. A quick left jab in the final seconds snaps Pacquiao’s head back. Manny getting outboxed. How quickly that became the most one-sided round of the fight.

Mayweather 10-9 Pacquiao (Mayweather 107-102 Pacquiao)



Round 12

Manny not throwing enough because he was afraid of getting caught. When you’re getting hit you don’t throw. Pacquiao not giving up, still going for it. Floyd moving backward. Pacquiao will win the final round on aggression but it won’t be enough. Nervous energy in crowd, who seem to know what’s coming.

Mayweather 9-10 Pacquiao (Mayweather 116-112 Pacquiao)

Mayweather wins a unanimous decision. Judges turn in scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112.

I stayed up last night to watch the fight and it was everything I expected. The people who are saying 'Pac won!', I guess have never boxed or even watched a boxing bout in their lives, and their knowledge of the sport comes directly from sitting in their living rooms and watching the Rocky Saga. Either that or they are letting their sentimental opinion of Pac cloud their better judgement. What we saw last night was an artist at work. We don't look at a DaVinci and say 'man that Mona Lisa is ugly' we say 'wow it's a DaVnci' because that is what those 16,000 fans at the MGM saw last night, they saw DaVinci painting the Mona Lisa. It's time to just shut up and say 'Wow, I just saw a Mayweather

People are crying out about Pac's injury. Do they not know Mayweather has been fighting injured for years? That's why he throws less punches and tags and moves much much more than he even used to. He protects those 180 million dollar hands. He might hit less, but he makes each punch count. So what Mayweather has done is found a way of winning and using his other skills
"His ability to move and out smart. If I know this about his hands, surely Pac and Roach do. They should have known exactly what was going to happen, but it really didnt look like it. People should just realise Manny was welcomed last night to the Mayweather school of boxing. May didn't even have to break a sweat. If you have a bad shoulder Pac, find another way to win. But reality is you couldn't, because your one dimensional and Mayweather is in another dimension.

omenka:
Frankly I'm beginning to feel sorry for this man.

why are you feeling sorry for that man , when he was robbing and scamming everyone he came in contact with he didn't pity them and when they free him do you think he will change he ways

If you were to rank the best jobs in the world, being an A-list actor in Hollywood would definitely be near the top. Name another job that comes with a multi-million dollar paycheck, an army of adoring fans, private jets, exclusive parties and a thousand other perks that mere mortals can only dream about. The fact that actors make a ton of money isn't news. We're all well aware that A-list celebrities can easily pull down $10-$20 million for a single movie. What we really want to know about are the deals that made a handful of ultra-lucky actors massively rich. We're talking about the largest acting paychecks in Hollywood history.

In order for an actor to make a serious fortune from a movie, he (or she) needs more than just a huge salary. Even if an actor like Adam Sandler commands $20 million per movie, that alone isn't nearly enough. If you want to make a ton of money in Hollywood, you need one thing: Points. Points represent the percentage of a movie's revenues that someone is owed. For example, if Brad Pitt does a movie, he may demand 10 gross points (10%) of the film's revenues on top of his $20 million salary. That would mean he would get 10% of the movies gross revenues ("gross points" means before costs, "net points" mean after costs). So if his movie goes on to earn $100 million, Brad Pitt is entitled to an additional $10 million (10% of 100 million). Obviously studio executives only offer points to a small circle of the biggest and most bankable stars in the world. And if you're financial track record starts to wobble (for example Jim Carrey), your days of getting points will be over faster than you can say "Malibu beach house". Warning! Some of the numbers below are truly mind boggling…

#1: Tom Cruise – $290 million from Mission: Impossible I, II, III and IV

Tom Cruise is one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood for a reason: He almost never does a movie without taking a huge percentage of the gross profits. That has been a problem at times, especially when his movies have gone on to flop at the box office. But for the most part, Mr. Cruise has always been able to pick himself up with another hit down the road. His highest paying role far and away (no pun intended) has been that of Agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Cruise's production company optioned the film rights and has then produced all four movies. This allowed Tom to make $70 million off the first film, $75 off the second, $75 off the third and $70 million off the fourth. That works out to a grand total of $290 million which is the largest cumulative paycheck any actor has ever received for a single part.

#2: Keanu Reeves – $262 million from The Matrix I, II and III

Did you know that Will Smith was offered the role of Neo before Keanu? Not only did Will Smith end up turning down the starring role in three of the biggest films of the last 20 years, but he also lost out on a potential $262 million payday. You're eyes are not deceiving you, Keanu Reeves earned $262 million off the three Matrix movies. For the first film, Keanu was paid a salary of $10 million plus 10% of the gross. The Matrix I eventually earned $460 million worldwide, bringing his total pay to $56 million. For the second and third movies, Keanu earned $15 million per film plus 15% of the gross. The Matrix II went on to make $742 million worldwide and put $126 million in Keanu's pockets. The third movie earned $430 million, translating into $80 million for Neo. That adds up to a mind boggling grand total of $262 million for three films. The $126 million Keanu earned for the second movie, is the largest paycheck every received for a single movie to date.

#3: Johnny Depp – $185 million from Pirates of the Caribbean I, II, III and IV

Last July a little known movie blog reported that Johnny Depp had earned $350 million off the first four Pirates movies. The only source that blog credited was "an individual with knowledge of his deals". Disney quickly disputed this claim and called the reported number "highly inaccurate". Here are the facts: Johnny earned $20 million for the first movie, $60 million for the second, $50 million off the third and $55 million off the fourth. There is speculation that in order to return for a future fifth installment, Depp has negotiated a deal that could be worth $95 million and will include a cut of merchandise and DVD sales in addition to the box office receipts!

#4: Bruce Willis – $120 million from The Sixth Sense

In order to convince Bruce Willis, one of the biggest stars on the planet, to appear in an highly unusual film about dead people directed by an unknown director without any track record, the studio behind the project agreed to pony up a $14 million fee plus 17% of the gross points. As we all know now, The Sixth Sense was a smash hit which went on to earn $670 million worldwide. That put a $106 million bonus into Bruce's bank account on top of his $14 million salary. Willis also wracked up a $450 thousand dollar private jet tab and had a $400 thousand dollar "allowance" while working on the film. In case you were curious, the other star of the film, Haley Joel Osment was paid just $150,000. He did not receive a private jet tab or allowance.

#5: Tom Cruise – $100 million from War of the Worlds

#6: Will Smith – $100 million from Men in Black 3

#7: Sandra Bullock -$77 million from Gravity

Hot off winning the Best Actress Academy Award for 2009's The Blind Side, Sandra inked a very lucrative deal with Warner Brothers to take over for Angelina Jolie in Alfonso Cuaron's space epic Gravity. The deal guaranteed Sandra Gravity $20 million up front then 15% of the movie's gross after her advance was earned back. She was also guaranteed a percentage of the film's DVD, TV and various other sources of revenue. Gravity went on to earn more than $700 million and to date has put an estimated $70-$77 million, in Sandra's piggy bank.

#8: Tom Hanks – $70 million from Forrest Gump

When the production of Forrest Gump was going over budget, Tom Hanks wisely handed back half of his $10 million paycheck in exchange for a 10% share of the movie's gross revenues. This turned into a $70 million payday on top of the Best Actor Academy Award.

#9: Harrison Ford – $65 million from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This might be the biggest payday ever for an absolutely horrendous movie. No further comment.

#10: Jack Nicholson – $60 million from Batman

#11: Adam Sandler – $60 million from Anger Management

Sandler took home a $20 million salary plus 25% of the gross for this movie, which coincidentally also featured Jack Nicholson.

#12: Leonardo DiCaprio – $59 million from Inception

#13: Will Smith – $54 million from Bad Boys II

#14: Robert Downey, Jr – $50 million from The Avengers

#15: Will Smith – $44 million from Men in Black II

#16: Leonardo DiCaprio – $40 million from Titanic

#17: Tom Hanks – $40 million from Saving Private Ryan

#18: Johnny Depp – $40 million from Alice in Wonderland

#19: Denzel Washington – $40 million from American Gangster

#20: Jim Carrey – $30 million from Yes Man

Bonus: Mel Gibson – $400 million from The Passion of the Christ (directed & produced)

Technically Mel earned his $400 million paycheck as a director, not an actor, which is why we did not include him on the above list. When no studio would finance the film, Gibson paid for the entire $45 million production and marketing budget out of his own pocket. This was obviously a risky move, considering the money represented more than half of his entire net worth at the time. On the flip side, by self-funding the film, Mel was entitled to 50% of of the box office profits. That eventually turned out to be more than $300 million. Added to that amount was an additional $75 million from DVD sales and $25 million from merchandise.

In Conclusion:

Working for points is actually good advice that can be applied to all professions. If you want to make a ton of money some day, earning salary alone is never going to cut it. You need to own a piece of the back end of whatever you are doing. You need to have skin in the game. If you take nothing else away from this article, remember that being an employee with a high salary is meaningless. Only owners cash out when a company gets bought for a billion dollars. So go into work tomorrow and demand a piece of the action!

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/the-largest-acting-paychecks-in-hollywood-history/

When Microsoft stock was at a record high in 1999, and its market capitalization was nearly $620 billion, the notion that Apple Computer would ever be bigger — let alone twice as big — was laughable. Apple was teetering on bankruptcy. And Microsoft’s operating system was so dominant in personal computers, then the center of the technology universe, that the government deemed the company an unlawful monopoly.

This week, both Microsoft and Apple unveiled their latest earnings, and the once unthinkable became reality: Apple’s market capitalization hit $683 billion, more than double Microsoft’s current value of $338 billion.

At Apple’s earnings conference call on Tuesday, its chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, called the quarter “historic” and the earnings “amazing.” Noting that Apple sold more than 34,000 iPhones every hour, 24 hours a day, during the quarter, he said the sheer volume of sales was “hard to comprehend.”

Apple earned $18 billion in the quarter — more than any company ever in a single quarter — on revenue of $75 billion. Its free cash flow of $30 billion in one quarter was more than double what IBM, another once-dominant tech company, generates in a full year, noted a senior Bernstein analyst, Toni Sacconaghi. The stock jumped more than 5 percent, even as the broader market was down.

A far more subdued Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, who is trying to transform the company and reduce its dependence on the Windows operating system, referred to “challenges.” Microsoft’s revenue was barely one-third of Apple’s, and operating income of $7.8 billion was less than a quarter of Apple’s. Microsoft shares dropped over 9 percent as investors worried about its aging personal computer software market.

Robert X. Cringely, the pen name of the technology journalist Mark Stephens, told me this week that when he interviewed Microsoft’s co-founder, Bill Gates, in 1998 for Vanity Fair, Mr. Gates “couldn’t imagine a situation in which Apple would ever be bigger and more profitable than Microsoft.”

“He knows he can’t win,” Mr. Gates said then of the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

But less than two decades later, Apple has won. How this happened contains some important lessons — including for Apple itself, if it wants to avoid Microsoft’s fate. Apple, after all, is now as dependent on the success of one product line — the iPhone accounted for 69 percent of its revenue — as Microsoft once was with Windows.

The most successful companies need a vision, and both Apple and Microsoft have one. But Apple’s was more radical and, as it turns out, more farsighted. Microsoft foresaw a computer on every person’s desk, a radical idea when IBM mainframes took up entire rooms. But Apple went a big step further: Its vision was a computer in every pocket. That computer also just happened to be a phone, the most ubiquitous consumer device in the world. Apple ended up disrupting two huge markets.

“Apple has been very visionary in creating and expanding significant new consumer electronics categories,” Mr. Sacconaghi said. “Unique, disruptive innovation is really hard to do. Doing it multiple times, as Apple has, is extremely difficult. It’s the equivalent of Pixar producing one hit after another. You have to give kudos to Apple.”

Walter Isaacson, who interviewed Mr. Jobs for his biography of the Apple co-founder and chief executive, said: “Steve believed the world was going mobile, and he was right. And he believed that beauty matters. He was deeply moved by beautiful design. Objects of great functionality also had to be objects of desire.”

Like many successful companies, Microsoft nurtured its dominant position, but at the risk of missing potentially disruptive innovations. “You have to acknowledge that Microsoft has been successful and it still is,” said Robert Cihra, a senior managing director and technology analyst at Evercore. “But clearly, they’ve struggled over how to protect the Windows franchise while not having that hold them back in other areas. I think even Microsoft would agree that they’ve been too concerned with protecting Windows over the years, to their detriment.”

By contrast, “Steve ingrained in the DNA of Apple not to be afraid to cannibalize itself,” Mr. Isaacson said. “When the iPod was printing money, he said that someday the people making phones will figure out they can put music on phones. We have to do that first. Now, what you’re seeing is that the bigger iPhone may be hurting sales of iPads, but it was the right thing to do.”

Mr. Cihra agreed: “Apple laid waste to its iPod business. They’re happier selling 74.5 million iPhones than they would be even if they still were selling that many iPods, which they wouldn’t be anyway because someone else would have cannibalized them.”

Microsoft has repeatedly tried to diversify, and continues to do so under Mr. Nadella. But “it’s been more of a follower whereas Apple has been more of a trendsetter, trying to reinvent an industry,” Mr. Sacconaghi said.

In belatedly buying Nokia, Microsoft is offering its own smartphone, the Windows phone, in head-to-head competition with Apple. While the device has garnered some critical praise, “I’m not sure consumers need a third option” to the Android and iOS platforms, Mr. Cihra said. Microsoft’s already tiny share of the smartphone market has been dropping.

Perhaps more surprising, the Apple model of integrating all aspects of the design and manufacture of a product, long abandoned by other manufacturers, has been vindicated. Microsoft was once content to stick to software, ceding processors to companies like Intel and the PCs themselves to an array of other manufacturers.

“Microsoft seemed to have the better business model for a very long time,” Mr. Isaacson said. “But in the end, it didn’t create products of ethereal beauty. Steve believed you had to control every brush stroke from beginning to end. Not because he was a control freak, but because he had a passion for perfection.”

Apple “proved that you want to own the hardware and not just the platform,” Mr. Cihra said. “With the advent of PCs, everyone gave up on that model except Apple. But if you get that model right, the upside leverage is huge. If you want an Android device, you can go anywhere. But if you want an iPhone, you have to go to Apple.

“If you can do that, you get pricing power, and the profitability is unbelievable.” Apple reported profit margins this quarter of just under 40 percent.

And then there’s Apple’s successful leadership transition to Mr. Cook, who took over as chief executive in 2011, shortly before Mr. Jobs died. It’s not that Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates’s immediate successor, and now Mr. Nadella haven’t done a decent job at the helm of Microsoft. Until this week’s dip, Microsoft shares were close to a record high. But Mr. Gates is still very much alive, and remains engaged with the company.

Mr. Jobs “told me that Tim Cook would be an inspiring leader,” Mr. Isaacson said. “He knew Tim wouldn’t wake up every morning trying to figure out what Steve Jobs would do. Steve would never have made a bigger iPhone. He didn’t believe in it. But Tim did it, and it was the right thing to do.”

Some investors worry that Apple could become the prisoner of its own success. As Mr. Sacconaghi noted, 69 percent of the company’s revenue and 100 percent of its revenue growth for the quarter came from the iPhone, which makes Apple highly dependent on one product line. “There’s always the risk of another paradigm shift,” he said. “Who knows what that might be, but Apple is living and dying by the iPhone. It’s a great franchise until it isn’t.”

Apple is also running into “the challenge of large numbers,” Mr. Cihra said. With a market capitalization approaching $700 billion, the number “scares people,” he said. “How can it get much bigger? How is that possible?” Apple is already the world’s largest company, by a significant margin.

But he noted that by many measures, Apple shares appeared to be a bargain. “The valuation is still inexpensive,” he said. “It’s less than 13 times next year’s earnings and less than 10 times cash flow,” both below the market average. “Those are very low multiples. They have $140 billion in cash on the balance sheet and they’re generating $60 billion in cash a year. All the numbers are just enormous, which is hard for people get their heads around.”

Mr. Cihra noted that Microsoft already dominates its core businesses, leaving little room for growth. But, he said, “Apple still doesn’t have massive market share in any of its core markets. Even in smartphones, its share is only in the midteens. Apple’s strategy has been to carve out a small share of a massive market. It’s pretty much a unique model that leaves plenty of room for growth.”

Can Apple continue to live by Mr. Jobs’s disruptive creed now that the company is as successful as Microsoft once was? Mr. Cihra noted that it was one thing for Apple to cannibalize its iPod or Mac businesses, but quite another to risk its iPhone juggernaut.

“It’s getting tougher for Apple,” Mr. Cihra said. “The question investors have is, what’s the next iPhone? There’s no obvious answer. It’s almost impossible to think of anything that will create a $140 billion business out of nothing.”

Correction: January 31, 2015

The Common Sense column on Friday, about Apple’s overtaking and dwarfing Microsoft in size and sales among technology companies, misstated Apple’s iPhone sales in its most recent quarter. It sold more than 34,000 iPhones of all models per hour, not just iPhone 6s.


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/business/how-and-why-apple-overtook-microsoft.html?_r=0

-Total revenues of $74.6bn best expectations and contribute to $18bn profit

-Company is preparing to launch Apple Watch in April

Apple sold a record 74.4m iPhones in the three months to the end of 2014, the company announced Tuesday, comfortably beating analysts’ expectations as sales of its two newest models soared during the Christmas holidays and found new fans in China.

The tech company announced a record $74.6bn in revenues for the all-important third quarter – well ahead of the $67.5bn expected by analysts – and a record quarterly net profit of $18bn. Apple, the world’s most valuable company, ended the quarter with $178bn in cash.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook called the sales “phenomenal” and said the company had sold 34,000 iPhones an hour every day of the quarter. “This volume is hard to comprehend,” Cook said.

Sales were led by China, up 70% on a year ago. Sales in the Americas and Europe were up 23% and 20% respectively.

The iPad’s popularity continued to wane, however. Apple sold 21.4m of the devices in the last quarter of 2014, less than analysts had expected, but iPhone sales cheered investors. Ahead of Apple’s announcement analysts had predicted the company would report sales of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus of between 66m and 70m over the quarter. Apple’s shares jumped 5% in after-hours trading.

BAMAKO (Reuters) - A two-year-old girl who was Mali's first case of Ebola died on Friday, shortly after the World Health Organization warned that many people had potentially been exposed to the virus because she was taken across the country while ill.

The girl had travelled with her grandmother hundreds of kilometres by bus from Guinea via Mali's capital to the western town of Kayes, where she was diagnosed on Thursday. Health workers were scrambling to trace hundreds of potential contacts in a bid to prevent Ebola taking hold in Mali.

The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed 4,900 people, mainly in nearby Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. A global response to the epidemic is being rolled out but experts warn that tens of thousands more people are at risk.

In a statement on Friday night, Mali's government confirmed the death of the girl, who has not been identified.

"In this moment of sadness, the government would like to express its condolences to her family and reminds the population that maintain very strict hygiene rules remains the best way to contain this disease," it said.

Mali is the sixth West African nation to record a case of Ebola. Senegal and Nigeria have successfully contained outbreaks and has been declared free of the disease. Spain and the United States have had a few cases.

Diplomatic sources have expressed concern about the preparedness of Mali, one of the world's poorest countries, to contain an outbreak. Home to a large U.N. peacekeeping mission, the mostly Muslim country is still battling northern Islamist militants after a brief French-led war last year.

WHO said that an investigation into the girl's case revealed that she had already started showing symptoms - and was therefore contagious - before being taken to Kayes.

"WHO is treating the situation in Mali as an emergency," the U.N. health agency said in a statement.

"The child’s symptomatic state during the bus journey is especially concerning, as it presented multiple opportunities for exposures – including high-risk exposures - involving many people," it added.

The girl was seen by health workers on Oct. 20 in Kayes but was referred to another hospital the next day where she tested positive for typhoid but was also bleeding from her nose. It was not until Oct. 23 that she tested positive for Ebola, WHO said.

WHO said that 43 contacts had been identified and isolated but a second Malian health official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters that authorities estimated that at least 300 people had been in contact with the infected child.

Hours before Mali confirmed the case on Thursday, WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda said the agency had "reasonable confidence" that there was not widespread transmission of the Ebola virus into neighbouring countries.

IVORY COAST CONTACT

WHO and Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has helped run much of the response to Ebola, were both scrambling teams to Mali on Friday. A U.N. plane flew one tonne of medical supplies - including personnel protection equipment kits, gloves, face shields and buckets - to the country.

On the dusty streets of the capital Bamako, residents voiced alarm at the girl having spent time in the city's Bagadadji district before travelling on Sunday to Kayes, some 600 km to the northwest near the Senegalese border.

"I am afraid because, with my job, I am in permanent contact with people but I can't afford to just stop," said taxi driver Hamidou Bamba, 46, in Bamako. "Today is Friday so let us pray to Allah that this disease will not spread in Mali."

Mali, together with cocoa producer Ivory Coast, has put in place border controls to stop Ebola at its frontiers. However, a visit to Mali's border with Guinea by Reuters this month showed vehicles avoiding a health checkpoint set up by Malian authorities by simply driving through the bush.

Ivory Coast was on alert after Guinean authorities informed them that a Guinean health worker had slipped surveillance and headed for the border after a patient had contracted Ebola.

Raymonde Goudou Coffie, Ivory Coast's health minister, said the authorities did not know if the medic had Ebola but had to be traced as he had been in contact with someone who had.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/malis-first-ebola-case-two-old-girl-dies-194230408.html

Pre-orders for Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus started today in China, with sales from the country's three carriers hitting one million units, reports Chinese publication Tencent (via Fortune). This figure includes orders processed by China's major wireless carriers and does not account for those orders accepted by Apple or the more than 6,000 resellers that also opened iPhone reservations today.

While pre-orders officially began on Friday, October 10th, Chinese website JingDong started accepting iPhone 6 and 6 Plus reservations last week. In its first week, the website processed more than 9 million reservations, with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus almost equally popular among consumers.

Apple launched its new iPhone models in September with sales reaching 10 million in the opening weekend. Demand for the new iPhone models remains strong, with Apple reportedly pushing back production of a rumored 12.9-inch iPad in order to boost the company's iPhone 6 Plus supply first.

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/10/apple-china-preorders-1-million/

Apple and Google are the only two brands in the world valued at over $100 billion


For the second year in row, Apple has topped Google as the world's most valuable brand.

The two are the only brands to be valued at more than $100 billion, according to the annual Best Global Brands report.
The ranking, compiled by Interbrand consultancy, considers three main criteria. Besides the financial performance of branded products, it also looks at how the brand influences customer choice, and whether it can push up the price of a product.
Valued at $118.9 billion, Apple increased its value by 21% year-on-year, while Google's brand value of $107.43 billion jumped 15% compared to last year.
Targeting the yummy man Internet ushers in new era of branding Does Apple live up to the hype?
"Apple and Google's meteoric rise to more than $100 billion is truly a testament to the power of brand building," according to Jez Frampton, Interbrand's CEO.
Tech companies are heavily represented in the ranking with IBM (4), Microsoft (5) and Samsung ( in the top 10.
The ranking is also a good news for the car industry, as four automobile companies -- Toyota (, Mercedes-Benz (10), BMW (11), and Honda (20) -- all made in into the top 20. Three other carmakers were among the top rising brands. Audi's brand value increased 27%, while Volkswagen and Nissan both saw a boost of 23%.
But Facebook was the ranking's top riser, gaining 86% in brand value and jumping 33 spots to number 29. Facebook has grown again last year, with the number of monthly active users at 1.32 billion, up 14% year-over-year. It's $2.91 billion revenues in second quarter smashed expectations, growing 61% compared to last year.
Among the ranking's newbies are DHL (81), Land Rover (91), FedEx (92), Hugo Boss (97), and Huawei (94).
By joining the elite club, the Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei became the first company to represent China in the ranking. The third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, behind Samsung and Apple, reported a 34.4% net profit increase to $3.38 billion in 2013.

Smartphone maker could follow decline of former mobile phone darlings ( Blackberry and Nokia) which were too slow too adapt to changing market

Samsung Electronics has reported a 60% slump in quarterly profits as the sudden decline in its mobile phone business draws comparisons with fallen rivals BlackBerry and Nokia.

Having risen in just three years to dominate the hugely lucrative global smartphone market, Samsung faces challenges on all fronts. Its flagship Galaxy S5 handset is not selling as well as last year’s model; Chinese and Indian rivals are stealing business and show no signs of stopping; and Apple is moving into its patch with large-screen premium phones.

Those factors led the South Korean company to announce on Tuesday that operating profits for the three months to 30 September were 4.1tn won (£2.4bn), down 60% from a year before, with revenues of 47tn won falling 20% from the same period in 2013.

The company signalled “declines in the mobile business due to intensified smartphone competition” and although it insisted that smartphone sales had increased marginally, some analysts took a different view.

Counterpoint Research, a mobile analyst company based in Hong Kong, said Samsung’s shipments had fallen year-on-year by more than 2% to 79m, and the “marginal increase” was in comparison to the second quarter’s 74.9m shipments.

It is the first time Samsung’s smartphone shipments have dropped year-on-year, which carries warning signs for its future. Its profit also relies on a multiplier effect: its phones use its displays and chips, so when handset sales are booming, more displays and chips are made, improving scale and lowering price, and helping to win outside business. When phone sales slow, the multiplier fades away, as do profits.

“Samsung is getting closer to the fate of its peers,” said Richard Windsor, of the Radio Free Mobile consultancy. Samsung uses Google’s Android software and analysts fear that Samsung has lost its chance to dominate other manufacturers that use Android, such as China’s Xiaomi and Huawei. Windsor said Samsung’s profits could follow the course of multiple Android handset manufacturers such as HTC, LG and Sony, which have boomed and then dwindled amid expanding competition.

“It appears that Samsung has been cutting prices in order to maintain market share but has lost market share anyway,” Windsor said. “This increasingly looks like beginnings of the vicious cycle which ended the dominance of Ericsson, HTC, Motorola, BlackBerry and Nokia.”

That is the scary thought that has Samsung’s executives – which has a highly critical internal culture, and always seeks improvement – desperately seeking the best route forward. Nokia, BlackBerry and Ericsson are salutary tales in the mobile business: former darlings which were too slow to adapt to changing markets, and were left behind.

Samsung’s problem is that while it has dominated Android smartphones across the whole spectrum, from cheap to pricey, it is seeing its low-end sales eroded by upstarts such as Xiaomi and Huawei and Micromax from India, which have begun to match and even beat it for price and popularity. Samsung said the average selling price of its phones fell, “driven by reduced proportional shipments of high-end models” together with price cuts on older models.

“Despite the discounts, sales did not increase, so that means they shed profit to just barely maintain their market position,” said Tom Kang of Counterpoint Research.

Nor is there any sign of smartwatches – six in the past year – generating useful revenues. Jan Dawson, of Jackdaw Research, said: “As the vast majority of future global growth in smartphones will come from low-end customers spending under $150 (£95) on a handset, it’s going to be really tough for Samsung to get going again.”

But Samsung’s bigger problem, say analysts, is that while it has dominated smartphones, it has not made itself irreplaceable. Samsung’s TouchWiz interface – its adaptation of Android – is not universally popular and its ChatOn app will not stop customers from switching to an Android handset made by Sony, LG, Xiaomi or Huawei. Whereas Apple has focused on building an enviable app library and content store through iTunes, Samsung has relied on Google and limited its room for manoeuvre.

“Samsung has ceded control of the ecosystem to Google, meaning that the options that it has to differentiate its products in the future are extremely limited,” said Windsor.

Meanwhile, sales of top-end phones are slowing, while Apple has continued to eat away at the premium market of phones costing more than $400. And during the quarter Samsung lost its lead in China to Xiaomi and in India to Micromax.

Analysts concur that Samsung’s days of dominating the market by blanketing it with gigantic advertising and marketing spending – which includes payments to sales staff in phone stores – are over. Now, it has to compete with cut-throat margins at the low end, and newly resurgent rivals at the top end including Apple, which has released its large-screen iPhone 6 Plus that competes directly with Samsung’s Note series of “phablets” – phone-tablet hybrids – that are popular in Asia.

“Samsung’s situation is graver than expected. It should put a greater emphasis on cost cuts and review its business strategies from the zero point,” said Oh Sang-woo, an analyst at Leading Investment. “What matters is how Samsung will protect its falling market share in China and key emerging markets like India.”

Kang said: “It still has time, as that’s one of the advantages of being number one. People are reluctant to flock to an alternative all at once. But Samsung should get their strategy straightened out soon. They’ve been throwing the same course repeatedly, and getting pounded by the same player each time – Apple. They shouldn’t be stubborn; they can just pass over the star player and compete with the next in line. They can win the game if they swallow their pride. The market is about more value for the same amount of money, and Samsung should switch gears towards that.”

But Windsor warns that as sales fall and the multiplier effect falls away, Samsung’s troubles could deepen. “If its share of phone sales continues to fall, then this multiplier will no longer be possible, and Samsung will come closer and closer to joining the long-suffering ranks of every other Android handset maker in the market,” he said. “These companies make 2-4% operating margins in the best instance.”