Are Apples Profit Margins at the Start of a Long Decline?

For the past few years, Apple has benefited mightily for having the second most-valuable brand on the planet by charging a premium on its products. Apple products have been more expensive than others in the category and the implicit agreement was that customers would pay more to get the Apple name.

That's still true, but it may be somewhat less true in the future. The change isn't dramatic: Apple's gross margin in its fiscal fourth quarter was 40% compared to 40.3% in the comparable period in 2011. However, some analysts -- including Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty -- are wondering if that's the long term trend. When Huberty posed the question during Thursday's call with analysts, App…
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