[ckayatek]

Is it possible that Apple will settle for lower market share as long as they retain a majority of the profits? I mean look at the PC market where Apple sells relatively few units but controls nearly half of the profit. What does it matter if you only control 10% of the market if you control 90% of the profit in the long run.

Of course the issue in this argument is the App store. You could argue that by building a huge user base could allow you to shift your profits from hardware to software in the long run.

[ZeroGravitas]

I don't know if the numbers are hypothetical but Apple is probably going to have roughly 10% of the smartphone market this quarter, but they'll also have slightly less than half the profit share, which is some way off your 90% figure. And both numbers are trending down from their peaks of ~25% and ~90%.

I'd also look to Intel and Microsoft if I was wondering where the profit in the PC market went. I'm guessing your figures for PC profit don't include the little known Wintel duo?