Apple has usually billed itself as a high quality hardware manufacturer, and more recently they've expanded into services. The lion's share of their revenue is

Apple has usually billed itself as a high quality hardware manufacturer, and more recently they've expanded into services. The lion's share of their revenue is from these two things. Privacy has always been a core tenet of Apple's value proposition. They ask for more money, and in return you get assurance that the system you're using values your privacy more than other ecosystems. I don't necessarily think there needs to be anything more to it than that. Apple knows it can win privacy conscious people and monetize them in ways Google can't, and that's what it does.