There is only a mystery if you assume that apple is really chasing the same strategy as google and microsoft, and not a model where they only really care about

There is only a mystery if you assume that apple is really chasing the same strategy as google and microsoft, and not a model where they only really care about high margin products. The current Mac ecosystem will not tolerate a rent seeking appstore acting as middlemen between app or content producers and the end users where as the vision of taxing the content producers are a reality on iOS. Or to put it differently the per user profit will trend to be lower for MacOS then iOS so if apple is going to follow though with their philosophy of only maintaining a few products in order to be able fuss over every detail, then it makes perfect sense to double down on iPads and sideline the MacOS lines as something that will one day be merged with iOS. The mystery part is in explaining that Apple dont nesserily want a dominant marketshare if they have to compete on cost to get it and is totally willing to shed profitable product lines if they feel it distract mangement from the long term strategy. Weather or not thats a smart philosophy is a good question but it's pretty much at the core of how job's managed to turn two bankrupt companies into one of the biggest success stories of the post dotCOM age.