APPLE IN TROUBLE IF U.S. PHONE MARKET FOLLOWS FRANCE, INDIA, CHINA $AAPL $NOK $BBRY $GOOG $MSFT
Apple became the largest company in the world by market capitalization on the strength of innovation in mobile phones. Fortunately for Apple, the last several years there has been a consumer trend to treat their phones as status symbols or fashion accessories. This kind of consumer behavior has also been the primary reason for Apple’s success in China. For many newly rich Chinese, flaunting the latest iPhone has been a way to show that they have arrived. What about a possible inflection point that is arriving when most consumers will consider their phone simply as a utility device and not