[quote=enron_by_the_sea][quote=SK in CV]A little perspective is probably in order here. The largest company (by market value) in the world, just reported sales and earnings more than 20% higher than the previous year. It’s net income for the last 4 quarters is in the neighborhood of $8 billion, which will probably keep it in second place in the list of most profitable companies. It’s more than double the size of it’s nearest competitor in it’s sector in both market value and profit.

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What many Apple investors who just look at these stellar numbers in isolation miss, is the fact that those great revenue/profits/margins are in large part the result of a gift from AT&T/Verizon/Sprint; which will not keep giving forever …[/quote]

As long as AAPL has a product that the mobile’s customers want, they’ll keep paying. Did APPL make pretty sweet deals with them? Absolutely. One of the reasons they are among the biggest companies in the world is that they drive the hardest bargains. They are notoriously difficult with both vendors and customers alike. That won’t change. But the mobiles are making money selling iPhones. Unless other manufactures make a device that consumers want more than they want the iPhone, that dynamic is unlikely to change. (disclosure here, I’ve never had an iPhone, nor any other Apple product.)