I think he might be referring to the sale of Apple hardware, which is based on Intel chipsets and motherboards that in themselves are worth a fraction of the cost of the full system from Apple, and hence where the price hikes come in.
Intel chipsets and motherboards they may be.... but significant R&D costs go into them, and the manufacturing process required is not exactly the same as your run-of-the-mill beige PC box.
As with other things in IT, there are premium products (e.g. Cisco, Juniper) and there are the cheap competitors (Netgear, Huawei etc.)
And anyway.... their margin (around 30% FY10) is nothing compared to Microsoft's gross margin of 78% !
As you should well know, the only winners in the IT industry are the manufacturers/developers .... the rest of the channel are merely bottom feeders. Its one big pyramid scheme that's about as unsustainable in concept.