Hi,

very true and in the clothes industry the margins are even greater however, in the case of mobile phones it is very unusual. Also look at the big hit that Sony takes on each PS3 sold. They lose 100's of US $. The XBOX 360 also sold at a cost lower than the build price, though it is now meant to be profitable in terms of hardware sales.

A lot of people are concerned by the destruction of the traditonal consumer markets by very lost cost ie. low margin phones. Look at the quality of cameras being added to phones. At first a joke but now becoming they compete, with much lower margins and they are starting to erode the traditional camera market.

So it is pretty unusual what Apple is doing in this market segment

Martin