>Is it right to say that currently the cost of the hardware is being partly subsidized by the profits Apple makes from the software? No, it wouldn't be. You're

>Is it right to say that currently the cost of the hardware is being partly subsidized by the profits Apple makes from the software? No, it wouldn't be. You're probably thinking about gaming consoles who's HW is sold at a loss or at very thin profit margins and subsidized by the more expensive game purchases, but Apple hardware already has the highest profit margins of any HW manufacturer out there, and at their 200 USD per 8GB of commodity RAM and NAND chips, you better believe it. So no, they don't need the walled garden SW money to fund HW. Their HW alone brings in plenty of cash.