Not always. High profits largely depends on the kind of competitive advantage (trade secrets, patents, market share etc) that can be deployed in one's sector, i

Not always. High profits largely depends on the kind of competitive advantage (trade secrets, patents, market share etc) that can be deployed in one's sector, it is independent of industry. A few counter-examples that illustrates my point: 1. Having a trade secret that allows only you to manufacture a good exclusively with high margins. The best known example is Coca Cola. They enjoy average gross margins of 60%. https://ycharts.com/companies/KO/gross_profit_margin https://ycharts.com/companies/KO/gross_profit_margin 2. Intel enjoys a near-monopoly in the hardware industry selling server CPUs. They enjoy 63% margins on ~$16b in quarterly revenue. 3. Professional services. I believe this one is self-evident because you can mostly get away with charging value-based prices instead of cost-based prices that is predominant in industries like manufacturing. IBM Global Services contributes more than 60% of IBM's revenue which allows them to enjoy about 50% gross margins even though IBM GS has only been around since 1991. If industry maturity were truly a dominant factor, 26 years is more than enough time for their industry to "mature".