Europe is Apple's #1 cash cow, France is a big part of that. 
What Richard is not explaining is Why his telecom isn't making the huge profits it used to. The answer is simple: Free Mobile, a new telecom, which came on the market and offered an unlimited phone plan (voice, SMS, 3G, MMS, eaps, et al.) for 16 a month, no subsidized phones. They also released a 2 plan. Both these plans forced competitors to switch their plans from 100+ to 30 or less. Basically, they lost all their margin and are in really bad shape. 
For the consumer however, a lower plan means a lot more money saved up to buy newer devices more frequently. I actually believe the tendency will be to buy high end devices more frequently.