Consumers don't always choose based on price. There would be many consumers that would choose Android equipment even if Apple lowered their pricing. Then Appl

Consumers don't always choose based on price. There would be many consumers that would choose Android equipment even if Apple lowered their pricing. Then Apple would be competing, but without the war chest that allows them to, say, buy some chip companies and start designing their own chips or being able to pay in advance for parts and get a steep discount. Plus, as you note, if they achieved 92% marketshare, they'd fall under heavy regulation. This way, they're able to get 92% of the profit, but there's still significant competition to the point where Apple isn't even the largest by number of devices. It means that Apple doesn't have the market power to dictate terms - most people don't buy Apple equipment. It must continue innovating and producing great things. But it also means a lack of anti-trust attention since consumers have highly viable alternatives - alternatives that the majority of consumers worldwide use. Similarly, there are certain industries that seem to be "cool" and people will try and compete in them regardless of profit. Smartphones seems like such a market. In a market where Apple and Samsung are the only two profitable makers and there's little innovative new features coming out, people still want in. I mean, Apple joined the smartphone market with a completely different design in the iPhone - no keyboard, capacitive multi-touch screen that dominated the phone, etc. Today, it's mostly polishing that formula introduced in 2007. Why would you want to enter an industry where you'd just be taking a display, a chip from Qualcomm or MediaTek, and a pretty standard body and camera, pair that with Android, and ship what everyone else is shipping? Are you doing anything better? Unlikely. And yet people want in even in the face of zero profits. So, even if Apple wiped out the current competition, it's likely that people would want in. And companies like OnePlus have shown that it's not terribly hard to join in the party. Lowering margins probably wouldn't help Apple over the long run. Companies have shown a willingness to enter unprofitably and anti-trust attention on Apple could break their ability to continue profiting.