The operators have a certain gross margin model.

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But the firm's architecture also offers a clue to the vulnerability of Mr Gross's model.

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But he points out that his model assumes a gross margin of 15%, above the Street consensus at 10%.

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Amazon's model of low gross margins and high marketing expense is inferior to Ebay's and Yahoo's--and that's not a problem that time will solve.

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Michael Gross, author of "Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, " told CNN that such concerns were irrelevant to fashion's main job of shaping aspirations to sell clothes.

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Like almost all companies, Ascend has an internal financial model, which sets targets for gross profits and expenses as a percentage of revenues.

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For business model, Wantful has a traditional wholesale-retail model and gets 40% to 60% gross margins.

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Through the rest of 2013 and well into next year, the company is likely to look as it does this quarter, with small improvements in unit shipments and gross margin over each quarter until the company begins delivering its Model X crossover late in 2014.

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