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Apple doesn't seem to be in the business of selling software very much. Instead it's mostly used to increase the value of the hardware. The stuff I've seen them

Apple doesn't seem to be in the business of selling software very much. Instead it's mostly used to increase the value of the hardware. The stuff I've seen them incorporate that at one time were apps weren't 30% cheaper when bought from Apple, they were free (i.e., they came with the device). If they think some third party feature should be part of the core experience, they're going to incorporate it. This is true when building on anyone's platform (e.g., Microsoft, Facebook). Non-core experiences, like domain specific software, are less likely to suffer this fate. It's similar to when MS decided to ship a browser. God help you when the platform you're on decides they want to subsume your features.

smoldesu 4y ago
> Apple doesn't seem to be in the business of selling software very much. This is veritably false, they made $80 billion selling software this year. You might not see the App Store as software revenue, but Apple certainly does.
- chipotle_coyote 4y ago
  The context of the text you quoted seems to pretty clearly be about Apple selling their own software, e.g., as a publisher, not as a distributor. This whole branch of the discussion thread is, after all, about whether Apple adding end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups is "sherlocking" other cloud backup providers (spoiler: no).
makeitdouble 4y ago
> Apple doesn't seem to be in the business of selling software As sheer hardware revenue growth slowed, they moved their focus to services [0]. That’s also what we’re seeing on their push into more ads for instance, and this new feature goes the same direction: to benefit these encrypted backups you’ll need to sign up for storage. For most people wanting to cover more than one device, they’ll probably end up with the 2Tb plan which is at 10 bucks a month, the bare minimum 50GB being at 1$ a month. [0] https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/how-services-became-apple-s-fastest-growing-revenue-category/ https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/how-services-bec...
gernb 4y ago
There's a premium price on Apple products. That premium is arguably paying for the software.

smoldesu 4y ago

> Apple doesn't seem to be in the business of selling software very much. This is veritably false, they made $80 billion selling software this year. You might not see the App Store as software revenue, but Apple certainly does.

chipotle_coyote 4y ago
The context of the text you quoted seems to pretty clearly be about Apple selling their own software, e.g., as a publisher, not as a distributor. This whole branch of the discussion thread is, after all, about whether Apple adding end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups is "sherlocking" other cloud backup providers (spoiler: no).

makeitdouble 4y ago

> Apple doesn't seem to be in the business of selling software As sheer hardware revenue growth slowed, they moved their focus to services [0]. That’s also what we’re seeing on their push into more ads for instance, and this new feature goes the same direction: to benefit these encrypted backups you’ll need to sign up for storage. For most people wanting to cover more than one device, they’ll probably end up with the 2Tb plan which is at 10 bucks a month, the bare minimum 50GB being at 1$ a month. [0] https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/how-services-became-apple-s-fastest-growing-revenue-category/ https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/how-services-bec...

gernb 4y ago

There's a premium price on Apple products. That premium is arguably paying for the software.