“The fact that Apple beat its GM guidance for Q1 2013 — returning 38.5% profits rather than 36% — fell on deaf ears,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune. “The Street was convinced that the days of Apple’s 40-plus percent margins were over. The change, as they say, was structural, not seasonal.”

P.E.D. reports, “But in a note issued early Monday, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty finds evidence in Apple’s SEC Form 10-Q that the season of lower margins may be ending, and that the company’s GM% — and share price — could improve significantly in the second half of 2013.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: This isn’t rocket science. Apple introduced a raft of new products for the holidays (some even actually shipped to customers!) and new products always cost more to produce initially. As production normalizes and suppliers and assemblers get used to building parts and assembling the new products, the costs decline and Apple’s margins increase. This is nothing new.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

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