While I agree with you in general, Apple charges the carriers much more than other manufacturers, to the extent that carriers' margins are knocked down really l

While I agree with you in general, Apple charges the carriers much more than other manufacturers, to the extent that carriers' margins are knocked down really low, and Sprint was expecting to be profitable on the iPhone only a few years after launching it. In fact, the lower the sales of the iPhone, the higher the margin of the carrier(assuming same number of handsets). http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/24/technology/att-verizon-iphones/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/24/technology/att-verizon-iphon... The carriers are rumored to be pushing back on the iPhone prices, but they know they need it or the competition will lap up the sales for the expensive data plans.