Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone managed to impress most industry watchers despite the relentless hype buildup, which is quite an accomplishment in and of itself. Enough has been said on this that we thought we would present some of the best of it from around the web.

The iPhone’s amazing margins (Business Week):

I called David Carey, president of Portelligent, which does competitive technical intelligence–another way of saying it tears down products and then advises clients on their costs and likely gross margins. He says the iPhone is looking like a major money maker, on a per unit basis. “It will have very good margins,” says Carey, who has yet to try to come up with an exact figure. “They’ll end up being among the best in the [cell-phone] business.”That’s despite paying up for some of the most expensive components. He says Apple will have likely pay $50 or so for that slick new display–quite a bit more than lower-res screens, that don’t have the touchscreen controller that will set the iPhone apart from keypad-based phones. And all the storage in the iPhone will cost money, too. The storage will cost $30-35 for the 4-gig unit, or $60-70 for the 8-gig model, he figures.

But then, there’s plenty of costs the iPhone won’t have. Apple has already amortized the Mac software on which it runs, and that software interface means there’s no need for a keypad or on-off buttons and such.

TheStreet.com also thinks the iPhone will be good news for Adobe (ADBE):

The new device is likely to kick off a mobile-content arms race among carriers, and Adobe is well-positioned to supply some of the ammo. Here’s why:

Adobe, which snapped up Macromedia at the end of 2005, has already established a strong beachhead in the telephony world via a deal with Japanese telco giant NTT DoCoMo (DCM). A compact version of Macromedia’s flash multimedia player, called Flash Light, is now on millions of phones in Japan. What’s more, DoCoMo is using a server version of the player, called FlashCast, to push content to the company’s “ichannels,” which include news, sports, weather and so on.

Every time a Japanese consumer hits an ichannel, Adobe collects a bit of revenue.

PBS Commentator Robert Cringely thinks the Cisco (CSCO) suit over the name was a clever trap designed for publicity.

Cisco’s trademark infringement lawsuit, as well as its recent introduction of new iPhone models, shows the company has no intention of giving up the iPhone trademark to Apple. And since Cisco has a prior claim, just as many lawyers, and more money than Apple, one can only guess that Cisco will prevail. So why did Apple start this fight in the first place? Publicity.

Apple already has a fallback position created by the iTV-to-Apple TV transformation, so I’m guessing that sometime soon Apple will either pay Cisco a LOT of money for the name or Apple’s iPhone will be transformed into the Apple Phone. Either way, every mobile phone user on Earth will have heard that Apple is now in the mobile phone business. Very clever.

Finally, Digit Online tells us hackers are salivating over the iPhone too.

Technology fetishists aren’t the only people itching to get their hands on an iPhone. Hackers want to play with Apple’s new toy, too.

With the anticipated shortages, hopefully it will be a while before the hackers get their hands on one.

Disclosure: Author is long IShares MSCI Japan Index (EWJ) at time of publication.

Watch List news:

NTT DoCoMo’s net profit sagged 21% in the April-June quarter, dented by increased costs of promoting its 3G service and enhancing its network facilities.

Equifax Shares Rise on 2Q Profit

ITT Educational Services (ESI) announced earnings and a 10.4% increase in enrollment. Barrington Research maintained their outperform rating but tweaked the price target from $70 to $73.

D&B Announces Second Quarter 2006 Results, Raises EPS Guidance, Announces New Share Repurchase Program. Somebody may have figured this one out ahead of time, as the shares rose the day of the announcement (which was made after the market closed.)

Advo 3Q Profit Falls on Charges

Valassis 2Q Profit Drops

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2006 Financial Results Increases Full Year Guidance

Monarch profits hurtUTStarcom Shares Slapped by Downgrade

The Watch List names lost 4.37 percent this week, worse than any of the benchmarks. Again, not surprisingly given the median market cap of Watch List members, the performance was closest to the small-cap indices and it is still slightly ahead of them since inception.

It was a busy week, with earnings warnings from Borders Group (BGP), BJ’s Wholesale (BJ) and Yankee Candle (YCC), and an earnings disappointment from Journal Register (JRC). Ceradyne made its nuclear ambitions concrete, but will have a tough time fighting an Armored competitor. Hansen Natural (HANS) got kudos from Fortune.

Other news, that was fit to print but didn’t fit, includes:

Starbucks to up noncoffee merchandise for holidays - Yahoo! News

The holiday line-up will feature a glittery snow globe on a gold-colored base, at least three kinds of Christmas ornaments, a reusable Advent calendar that turns into a miniature chest of drawers at the end of the season and a dessert plate reading “Cookies for Santa.”

NTT DoCoMo going Super 3G

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced that starting today it will accept proposals from suppliers for development of equipment for Super 3G base stations and handsets.DoCoMo will select one or more suppliers for each of these categories around October and aims to complete the technology with the selected suppliers before the end of 2009.

The Super 3G standard is expected to provide superfast downlink data rates of over 100Mbps and uplink data rates of over 50Mbps, low-latency data transmission, and improved spectrum efficiency.

Accenture Acquiring Advantium and Meridian Informed Purchasing, Two Companies Specializing in Profit Recovery and Analytics

The two companies use sophisticated processes and proprietary software to analyze clients’ procurement and payables data to prevent, detect and recover the lost profits, or erroneous payments, which can result from human error, system-integration issues, contract non-compliance and fraud.

Cognizant (CTSH) forms digital media center of excellence.

Statoil’s Valkyrie well disappoints.

Travelzoo continues its growth in the UK.

Brunswick sneezed and MarineMax caught a cold.

KCS Energy acquisition by Petrohawk closed.

Pinnacle (PNCL) asked to place additional aircraft lease deposits.

In September 2005, Northwest Airlines, Inc. requested that Pinnacle Airlines, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp. (collectively, “Pinnacle”), pay $21,700,000 in additional aircraft sublease security deposits by March 1, 2006. Pinnacle has disputed Northwest’s right to seek additional security deposits at this time. Northwest has extended its deadline to August 14, 2006 while the parties continue ongoing discussions regarding their future business relationship.

Gabelli to Pay $130 Mln to Settle With US on Cell Licenses.

Campbell Soup to sell UK, Irish units for $845 mln. That’s a cash infusion equal to five percent of the market cap.

Disclosure: Author is long Starbucks (SBUX) at time of publication.