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Squeezed by Apple and Samsung, it had a bad quarter and expects the next to be worse

There was a time when HTC and Android were practically synonymous.

The Taiwanese manufacturer built the first commercially available Android phone -- the HTC Dream -- in 2008, and two years later collaborated with Google (GOOG) to build the Nexus One, the flagship of the Android line. Last November, it edged past Samsung, Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM) to take the lead in the U.S. market for smartphones.

How the mighty have fallen.

On Monday, HTC reported a 26% drop in fourth quarter profits and warned that revenues could drop 36% this quarter. Despite promises that the company would bounce back on the strength of four new models to be introduced at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress, the stock closed 5% lower in Asian trading.

"Our weakness in first-quarter guidance ... comes from facing competition in the U.S. from iPhone and Samsung," CFO Winston Yung told analysts in a conference call. He declined to provide unit sales numbers.

According to IDC, Samsung is now the No. 1 maker of smartphones in terms of shipments, both in the U.S. and worldwide (see here). But Apple is taking an ever larger share of the profits. In the December quarter, according to Asymco's Horace Dediu, Apple's iPhone captured 75% of worldwide profits in mobile phones -- smart or dumb -- with only an 8.7% market share, leaving precious little on the table for companies like HTC.

A cult figure among day traders issues a rare “buy” recommendation

FORTUNE — With Apple (AAPL) trading just over $530 a share — under 13 times last year’s earnings and 10.56 times his estimated October earnings — Bullish Cross’ Andy Zaky on Thursday told his readers to buy:

“Those who have been waiting for a correction in Apple to buy the stock now have that opportunity to do so. On a technical MORE

A record of the Android phones and tablets that downloaded a single app over 6 months

FORTUNE — Suddenly you can see the advantage — both for developers and users — of Apple’s (AAPL) approach of limiting the number of iOS devices on sale at any time to a handful of iPads, iPhones and iPod touches.

Google (GOOG) executive chairman Eric Schmidt downplays the challenge of knowing ahead of time which Android MORE

A gathering of hedge fund managers in Manhattan sends the share price on a wild ride.

FORTUNE — See on the chart at right where Apple’s (AAPL) share price dropped to just over $540 shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday?

That corresponds roughly to when the fund manager pictured above left, DoubleLine Capital’s Jeffrey Gundlach, told a room packed with investment managers that he was shorting Apple. “I just wonder how many people will MORE

Apple’s CEO left the master of dysfunctional relationships a lot of material to work with

FORTUNE — Viewers who have followed Aaron Sorkin’s TV and film work over the years were delighted to learn Tuesday that one of Hollywood’s most gifted screenwriters has officially signed on to adapt Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs for Sony Pictures’ (SNE) film.

Sorkin is the master of romantic relationships that are painfully, hilariously dysfunctional. The MORE

The iPhone’s “buzz” got a bump after Apple started using celebrities in its Siri ads

FORTUNE — Some purists used the fact that Apple (AAPL) had replaced the always appealing but generally anonymous faces in its TV ads with a couple of Hollywood celebrities — Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson — as evidence that the company had gone to hell without Steve Jobs at the helm. (See Siri takes a star turn.)

But MORE

Two models held for inspection after a December patent ruling in Apple’s favor

FORTUNE — In what is believed to be the first tangible effect of the two-year-old proxy war Apple (AAPL) has waged against Google (GOOG) though the makers of Android phones, U.S. Customs officials have delayed shipment of two of HTC newest models pending inspection.

The delay is indefinite, but may turn out to be brief.

In December Apple won a MORE

In Washington, D.C., Tuesday, May 15, 2012

FORTUNE –The photo was posted on the Speaker of the House’s website with no details beyond the date. Until we find out what he and the CEO of Apple (AAPL) discussed, we’ll leave it to our readers write their own captions.

Filed under: Apple 2.0

An eye-opening comparison of Android’s income statement with Apple’s

FORTUNE — As part of an extended look at what he calls Google’s (GOOG) “Android economics,” Asymco’s Horace Dediu on Monday published what may be the first independent estimate of the company’s Android income statement.

As the chart at right shows, Android generates revenue for Google through three kinds of ad sales (Google’s Search, AdSense and AdMob). After costs and revenue sharing are MORE

Telegraphing an alleged price-fixing conspiracy 2 years before the DOJ caught up to it

FORTUNE — Paid Content’s Laura Hazard Owen, combing through documents newly unredacted in the states’ (as opposed to the U.S. Department of Justice’s) antitrust complaint against Apple (AAPL) and five book publishers, uncovered a gem: a blunt Steve Jobs e-mail that basically hands the attorneys general their price-fixing case.

In a note to a publishing executive nervous about MORE

Pouring cold water on one of Silicon Valley’s hottest rumors

FORTUNE — Although there is no shortage of iTV speculation — thanks to rumor sites like Taipei-based DigiTimes — and plenty of Apple (AAPL) analysts ready to calculate to the penny how much an Apple-branded TV set would add to the company’s bottom line, some experts have started to back away from what was once seen as an inevitablity.

In December, Richard Gardner, formerly MORE