Phone companies lose $400 for each iPhone sold

Turns out your carrier is actually losing money on that exorbitant iPhone contract you just signed. Apple charges carriers so much for the privilege of selling iPhones that service providers can't turn a profit. The 4S that cost you $200? AT&T paid around $600, eating $400 every time you upgrade. It's proving to be a lousy business model for phone companies, and is raising red flags on Wall Street. "Can Apple continue to roll through industry after industry, soak up all the profits, and leave everything it touches as a smoking wreckage?" one analyst asked in the Los Angeles Times. "They've done it with music and handsets, and now they're doing it to the carriers."