Not sure if I agree, more likely is the following: - Apple presumably is subsidizing hardware if it leads to larger NPV for their service business and recurrin

Not sure if I agree, more likely is the following: - Apple presumably is subsidizing hardware if it leads to larger NPV for their service business and recurring revenues for the lifetime of the said hardware. For instance, if a user buys an iPhone, they're more likely to buy Apple music, News+, iCloud storage plans, etc. This is akin to, in extreme case, Sony Playstation - they're often sold at a loss hoping to create future revenue streams from games. The reason why they can get away from selling Playstation consoles at a loss is because without buying games, it is completely useless piece of hardware. In the case of iPhone, it is not quite the same as Playstation because you don't need Apple Music to use an iPhone.