A large part of the specific 'value' of Apple is actually created by the community of Apple users. It is the users who endorse their products to others, it is t

A large part of the specific 'value' of Apple is actually created by the community of Apple users. It is the users who endorse their products to others, it is them who are willing to pay higher prices for Apple-branded products compared to otherwise similar products from other suppliers, it is the users who have - partly in response to Apple marketing, partly due to the large commitment (financially and otherwise) they have towards Apple products - created a virtual community of Apple-aficionados where showing up with anything but Apple will lead to questions, where 'nobody ever got XXXed for choosing Apple'. If these users decide that the Apple has lost its sheen, once they refrain from buying mobile phone cases with holes cut in them to show the branding, Apple will quickly find out they are essentially no different from companies like HP or Dell. Their profits will start resembling those of the rest of the industry, their stock price will sink to something resembling their P/E ratio and they will have to compete on a more level playing field. This is why this letter somewhat puzzles me. They were caught using a tax avoidance scheme, clear and simple. They try to talk their way out if this but fail to show anything that would legitimize their actions. This does not sit well with European Apple users and as such it has the potential to damage Apple's reputation - and with that its value - in this market. They stand to lose more than they gained by avoiding those taxes in the first place.