The problem here is that while Apple can play the fashion game as well as any company, there's no evidence that it can play it fast enough. These phones go in and out of style so fast that unless Apple has half a dozen variants in the pipeline, its phone, even if immediately successful, will be passé within 3 months.

There is no likelihood that Apple can be successful in a business this competitive. Even in the business where it's a clear pioneer, the personal computer, it had to compete with Microsoft and can only sustain a 5% market share.

And its survival in the computer business relies on good margins. Those margins cannot exist in the mobile handset business for more than 15 minutes.

And note that the Microsoft versus Apple battles are laughable compared with the frenzied marketing mania in the handset business. Even Microsoft has troubles with its attempts to get into a small sub-segment of the handset business with its operating system.