Apple bumps Nokia for highest operating profits

A new report from Reuters highlights Apple as the mobile phone company with the highest operating profits in the industry, despite only selling two different models of phone (the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS).

Despite Nokia still turning out the largest volume of smartphone handsets in the world, Strategy Analytics estimates Apple's operating profit on the iPhone range topped $1.6 billion, while Nokia was closer to $1.1 billion.

The figures are drawn from the sales quarter ending in September, which show that Cupertino brought in $4.5 billion from the sale of an impressive 7.4 million iPhones. This compares to Nokia's $10.36 billion generated from the sale of a whopping 108.5 million phones.

Nokia probably isn't too worried about momentarily losing its crown what with the highly anticipated N900 smartphone on the horizon, which is expected to become the new flagship power-device for the mobile giant.