Which is why Apple secures massive quantities of things like screens and NAND flash storage far in advance. They are immune to spot shortages and price hikes.
In the meantime, Apple is losing market share to Android, and the tough deal for publishers (30% cut vs Google’s 10),
I wonder what the stats will look like now that the iPhone is on two carriers in the US. Plus, don't forget the biggest e-publisher, Amazon, with the Kindle. Apple has better terms than they do.
Then, later this year, comes Nokia with Win 7 telephones, and they ain’t rotary.
WP7 has been langishing since its introduction since it doesn't bring anything new to the market. It's quite possible Nokia's leverage will make it popular. But that leverage is shrinking extremely fast, so they'd bettery hurry -- but not so much that they screw it up.
Nokia is #1 outside of these shores, so that’s the leverage they bring. I’m wondering if it’s not a good time dump some of Apple stock. It’s definitely a critical time for the company, all of the above, plus Steve’s health.
On the other hand, in a couple months they’ll have new versions of their key products, iPhone and iPad (and most likely the iPod), that, as is usually the case, the competition will have to start chasing.