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> Did anyone see on their balance sheet where it went? Any extraordinary items?

They've introduced new products for every category, so the manufacturing processes are still being refined. As time goes on they should eek more output in a given amount of time with fewer rejects, thus increasing margin.

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They're facing actual competition, and with actual competition Apple has to start to compete with themselves (the iPad Mini, a very strong emphasis on the last generation of smartphone as a discount device), and they have to iterate quicker: See that the iPad 3 lasted for 6 months before it was replaced. Apple's margins have always been an extraordinarily out of line with the industry, so really it's just falling back to Earth.

I agree re: faster iteration to keep up with competition, but my point is in line with what was said in the earnings call - Supply of the iPhone 5, ipad Mini and new iMacs was constrained, so they were unable to meet demand. Combine it with a shorter quarter and you can account for a good amount of the shortfall in margin.

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