The bar chart somebody linked to showed the same data in a much nicer way. Easier to grasp at a glance, and easier to make comparisons.

To make the page's visual work it would have been better to show later numbers in terms of the previous companies. Show, for example, that Facebook is 1.3 Blackberries, Nokia is 4 Facebooks, etc.

This magnifies returns on equity, which makes them more competitive with non-manufacturing companies, which typically cannot run on as high of debt levels because they don't have the same kind of collateral.

So typically you probably do have lower returns on invested capital (the entire capital base, debt plus equity) but returns on equity might be comparable. And if the manufacturing business is more stable -- which it often is, compared to most more ephemeral businesses with few assets -- lower returns are acceptable because there is lower risk.

Of course not all manufacturing companies are lower risk than all non-manufacturing companies.

Put it more simply, if I have a business selling widgets and I need to invest $100 to start the business, it matters more what kind of profit I can get on that $100. If the widget I'm selling sells for $50 and I make $10 profit vs. sells for $500 and I make $10 profit, I'm still making $10 profit on $100 invested capital.

Now more often than not, I'd prefer to sell the higher margin product as it requires less working capital (such as inventory costs) which in itself has the 'cost of capital', but that's just the reality of some (fairly lucrative) industries you get into.