iPhone 5

Did Apple use $2 billion to bail out Sharp last quarter?

Explaining a curious discrepancy in Apple's projected and actual capital expenditures

FORTUNE -- Sharp was in serious trouble last summer.

It had hemorrhaged 103 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in cash in the first half of 2012. It had another 200 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in convertible bonds coming due in 2013. And an emergency infusion of cash from Foxconn had just fallen through.

This was a problem for Apple (AAPL), because it was MORE

Is India getting Apple fever?

With models, starlets and disco music, the iPhone 5 makes a splash on the subcontinent

FORTUNE -- "Nowhere in India will you see this kind of queue to buy a smartphone." -- TV reporter, Mumbai, Nov. 2

India may be the fastest-growing mobile phone market in the world, but it's been hostile territory for Apple (AAPL).

In a country of 1.2 billion that buys 15 million cell phones a month, Samsung commanded a MORE

Deja vu: Apple's plunging profitability

Gross margins also shrank when the company brought out the iPhone 4

FORTUNE -- One of the numbers analysts watch closely when a company reports quarterly earnings is its total gross margin. It's usually expressed as a ratio:

GM% = (total revenue - cost of goods) / total revenue

Gross margin can be thought of as a measure of how efficiently a company turns sales into profits.

In Apple's (AAPL) case, gross margins (according MORE

How many iPhones did Apple sell last quarter?

The forecasts range from 21 million to 32.3 million. Median estimate: 27 million.

FORTUNE -- How well Wall Street receives Apple's (AAPL) quarterly earnings these days depends almost entirely on the iPhone.

In a good quarter -- like fiscal Q2 2012, when Apple sold 35 million iPhones -- the device will account for nearly 60% of the company's total revenue. In a bad quarter -- like Q3, when the 26 million units MORE

iPhone 5 video: SNL skit skewers Apple pundits

Take that CNET! Gotcha Gizmodo!

FORTUNE -- A little cultural relativism goes a long way when struggling with first-world problems -- like the flaws in Apple's (AAPL) new Maps app -- as Saturday Night Live comes to the iPhone 5's defense. Video now available on YouTube. Get it while you can.

ChangeWave: Maps issue had 0% impact on iPhone 5 sales

Likely buyers were not dissuaded by either Apple's Maps app or the new dock connector

FORTUNE -- A new survey of 4,270 mostly North Americans conducted in September and released Friday found no evidence that the concerns about Apple's (AAPL) new iPhone that have preoccupied the tech press since its release have affected likely buyers.

To the contrary.

According to ChangeWave's polling, nearly one in three (32%) of the early adopter types in their survey MORE

Analyst: iPhone 5 is huge. Android takes it on the chin

Early signs that the success of Cupertino's latest entry is coming at Android's expense

FORTUNE -- "We said the new iPhone was going to be huge and it was," writes Pacific Crest's James Faucette in a note to clients issued Tuesday. He briefly touches on Apple (AAPL)  -- noting strong demand for both the new phone and the newly discounted older models -- before unloading a trunkful of bad news for MORE

Andy Zaky makes the case for buying Apple now

It's headed for $1,000, he says. $635.85 may not be the bottom, but it's close enough

FORTUNE -- "History has repeatedly taught us that the best time to buy Apple is when the bearish sentiment in the stock has reached the pinnacle of extreme pessimism. When every guest on CNBC is calling for the imminent demise of Apple, when every headline is making a case for why Apple has peaked, and MORE

Apple analysts are trying to calm their nervous clients

The stock is down 9.5% from its $705 all-time intraday high

FORTUNE -- With Apple (AAPL) trading below $640, many of the several dozen analysts who follow the stock -- and who have issued a median price target of $780, according to Thomson/First Call -- are getting anxious calls from clients asking what the hell is going on?

On Tuesday, Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu (price target: $840) sent a note to his MORE

Why Apple's hardware chief came in from the cold

A near insurrection in the staff and a reported $2 million a month are powerful incentives

FORTUNE -- Anybody who follows Apple (AAPL) with more than passing interest couldn't help but wonder what was behind the surprise retirement in June and sudden reinstatement two months later of Bob Mansfield, the company's long-time senior vice president of hardware engineering. (See Early retirement isn't all that it's cracked up to be.)

A well-reported feature MORE