[prewett]

Those were Apple's gross margins. Cost of goods is never the total cost, even for retail. In Apple's case, a lot of the magic of the iPhone happens through the effort of R&D. The media saying Apple's profit margin is their gross margin is disingenuous and grossly misleading. Most companies' gross margins are somewhere around 70% for products, but Apple is the one that gets singled out.

[aetherson]

Apple's total profit after everything, for 2016, was $45.69B on $214.23B. That's over 21% net profit after every expense they have, which is insanely high. Apple's entire reputation is based on having crazy high profits for their revenue. That you're arguing that they have ordinary profit margins is insane.

And no, "most companies" do not have gross margins of 70%.