Always love when the earnings reports come out and Apple customers cheer like they've won something. Apple remains insanely profitable while charging them a premium for increasingly stale/mediocre products and we jump up and down and clap for them.
It was a lot easier to pay an Apple tax when their products were superior to everything on the market.
Apple isn't insanely profitable (mostly) because it charges a premium (relative to others) for comparable products.
It's insanely profitable in large part because (1) it sells so many premium products (the kind of products that others have large gross margins on just as Apple does, but of which others don't sell as many) and (2) its operational efficiency.
Other companies (e.g. Samsung) have company-wide gross margins that are comparable to, and in some cases greater than, Apple's. The separation comes from operational efficiency. Apple's operating margins are much greater than most of those others. For instance, it doesn't spend as much on sales and administrative (relative to its total sales and gross profit) as others do.
There are other reasons which contribute to Apple's profitability, but to a great extent those two dynamics drive Apple's incredible profitability.
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Apple having debt lowers their U.S. income tax rate. Did we not know this?? I fully expect them to be fine in the foreseeable future, and this is coming from an Android user.
Do you just mean that taking on debt rather than remitting foreign earnings (in order to, e.g., fund its capital return program) means a lower U.S. income tax rate? If so, then yes. Remitting those earnings would mean a higher (actual, though not necessarily effective) rate.
Otherwise, it isn't clear to me what you're referring to.
