They are a software vendor, and by vendor I mean producer. They don't not become a software vendor because they bundle the software and hardware together. They

They are a software vendor, and by vendor I mean producer. They don't not become a software vendor because they bundle the software and hardware together. They may make money on their hardware which is great for them, but it doesn't change the fact that OS X, iTunes, and the others, like all other software platforms, want lock-in; Apple merely wants to lock you in to the hardware too, so they use the software platforms to do that.