[dangus]

Is a free service something that has customers and non-customers?

If I acquire an iPhone second hand, I’ve potentially never given Apple a dime and I’m allowed to use iMessage for free with no ads as much as I want.

Just a thought exercise.

[pests]

That can all be factored in. By initially charging so much for the phone, it left value for the previous owner to recoup by selling it to you. Apple can (and I'm sure has) factored in these second hand sales, owners per iPhone, etc. They do have the stars to see how many iCloud accounts are created/used per device over it's lifetime.

[dangus]

I just thought of something else.

Apple has a business chat function in iMessage where you can chat with customer service at various companies via iMessage.

Presumably the businesses pay for this functionality? If so, someone using Beeper mini to contact a company is making Apple money.