Asymco has compiled the profits, revenues, and unit shipments among all of the major manufacturers, and as you can see in this graph, Apple is still kicking everyone’s behind when it comes to smartphone profit share. Though the revenue share gap with Samsung is a bit smaller than the one for profits, Apple is still decidedly in the lead. After all is said and done, Apple is claiming 75% of the profit share, 40% of the revenue share, and 9% of the unit share of the mobile market (though that last number might be closer to 8%).

After Apple’s monstrously successful first quarter it’s no surprise that Apple is profitable. Heck, it’s no surprise they’re the undisputed God-King of the mobile industry, and they probably have a giant pool of money where employees can get all Scrooge McDuck on lunch breaks. However, the fact that Apple is pulling in so much money out of the entire industry really illustrates just how successful the iPhone has become. Of course, if you ask any Android fan, financial success doesn’t necessarily equate to product quality (and I’m inclined to agree with them), but you can’t argue with the results. There’s another great graph here that shows just how much the iPhone’s market share has increased on multiple fronts since launch in 2007.

With this much of a lead, how much does Apple really have to worry about? Will it suffer death by a thousand cuts from a bajillionty Android devices? Or will Windows Phone eventually come into its own and give iPhone a run for its money? Looking at this graphs, it’s hard to imagine either of these things happening. The best the competition can reasonably hope for now is to get comfortable in second place. Let’s put it this way — what would the competition have to do to win you over?

Source: Asymco

Apple has just posted their annual Supplier Responsibility Progress Report. The report aims to help improve worker protections and factory conditions as well as show audit information for the year. The report outlines how their audit procedure is performed as well as shows results for audits in 2011.

Apple also posted a list of the 156 suppliers that make up over 95% of their supply chain. The main focus of the report is to highlight their continued efforts to improve work conditions and tighten down on underage labor.

Apple-designed training programs have educated more than one million supply chain employees about local laws, their rights as workers, occupational health and safety, and Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct.

Apple is also offering educational programs for workers to improve their business skills as well as learn more about entrepreneurship.

Source: Apple report, Apple list

Mercedes-Benz is providing iPads to 40 lucky dealers across the country so that they gain access to the company’s point-of-sale dealer system on the showroom floors.

“Mercedes-Benz Financial today announced that it is putting the Apple iPad into the hands of its dealers, becoming the first automotive finance company to give dealers mobile access to its proprietary point-of-sale dealer system called MB Advantage. In doing so, Mercedes-Benz Financial is one of the first companies to adapt the consumer-oriented iPad as a mobile business tool.”

And why not use iPad as it will provide the dealers with wireless mobility, information and flexibility – directly at their finger tips.

Video after the break! And yes we are aware it will not play on your iPhone – blame Mercedes-Benz for using Flash…

Even though the folks at Apple are toting the iPhone 3G as being business-friendly by offering some extra functionality and Exchange support via the iPhone 2.0 upgrade, the iPhone has always been a worthy platform for the business and finance-minded user (in my humble opinion).   Case in point,  the list of twenty-five (yes, 25!) different financial apps for the iPhone at currencytrading.net. I’ll cover briefly just a few of these apps in today’s Tip and you can explore the rest to your heart’s content.

iCalc Mortgage Calculator is great for finding out what your mortgage payment will be when buying a new home, or you can use it to figure out what your payment WILL be once your interest-only payments expire (ouch!).

Another useful app is Currency Exchange. Given the free-fall of the dollar, it’s not a bad idea to have a way to see how it stacks up against other world currencies.

iTIPZ Tip Calculator is exactly like it sounds – let this app compute your tip, split it as many ways as you have payers, and even let it round off the number for you.  Sweet!

Compound Interest Calculator helps you compute how much moolah ($$$) you can save over a period of time.  Remember when you were young (cough) and someone much older and wiser told you that if you saved $5 a week for 30 years you would have a gazillion dollars due to the magic of compound interest?  Yeah, well, I didn’t save the $5/week either, but at least if you start now, you can use this app to set your goals.

These are just four of the twenty-five apps at currencytrading.net.  Just head on over there at the speed of a click to see the rest.  If you have finances on the brain, there’s bound to be an app there that will be useful.

That’s it for this week’s Tip.  If you have a tip of your own that you would like to share with the rest of us, please leave a Comment or you can email me at: brian.hart@tipb.com.

Disclaimer:  Tip o’ the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (ok, ok.  I may have exaggerated the “gazillion” you can save via compound interest if you sock away $5/week.  It’s more like a bazillion).