Significance: Apple reassured markets, which had been suffering rare jitters over its stock before the Q1 earnings announcement, with a strong set of results, led by a fivefold increase in iPhone sales in China. This shows Apple adapting successfully to a global distribution model, which will be vital in competing with broad-based Samsung as growth shifts to emerging markets. However, the firm’s forecast disappointed analysts’ always high expectations, and fears that the famous iPhone model would be damaged from 2013 by changes to the subsidy structure would not go away. US carriers’ results highlighted the difficult balance between subsidy costs and the iPhone’s lure for customers, and there are signs of a biteback against the uneven balance of power with…