Wondering how Samsung managed to quash Motorola, HTC, and just about every other major Android rival? Start with this chart from analyst Benedict Evans.
Evans notes that Samsung's run-rate for marketing is $12.7 billion based on marketing in Q2. That's more than Google paid to buy all of Motorola. It's 3X HTC's entire market cap.
It's just an insane budget that no other company can keep pace with. Samsung's final bill could be higher. Evans says that based on historical patterns, it will spend $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter. (He also says that it tends to spend more in Q3, though less in Q1.)
