What's so painful about these "articles" is that it's painfully obvious that neither the folks at iSuppli nor the writers regurgitating their numbers has taken so much as a Business Accounting 101 course. That, or they're being deliberately misleading and inflammatory.
Cost of materials? Even assuming they're right, that is not a line item used in any published report to determine margin or profit. Also, as was previously noted, the subsidies are included in this article, which further muddies the waters.
The only useful examination I've ever seen (and it was at least two or three years ago; sorry, no linky) took a near-forensic look at Apple's quarterly and annual reports, factored in some unpublished but reliable and industry-standard costs, and came to the conclusion that Apple operated most of their hardware (pre-iPhone, of course) on a 34% gross margin (within a reasonable percentage of error). Healthy, but with the exception of certain loss-leader consumer electronics, perfectly in line with other companies using the same business, sales, and distribution models.
