[necovek]

That's a weird look. What is that market segment nobody is even trying to compete in?

Integrated ecosystem is something a number of players have tried and failed at, as they simply don't have the resources to build it up and sustain it until they are competitive.

Apple has started small too: tiny little iPods with iTunes + digital content sales really put them back on the map, before they scored a hit with iPhone which was an iPod touch with a modem. They have been riding the iPhone wave since, gobbling up money with iPhone and iPad manufacture and app sales, which allowed them to expand to SoC production for laptops too, which is what got them back on the PC (as in "personal computer") map too.

[Jtsummers]

> iPhone which was an iPod touch with a modem.

I mean, that's not totally wrong, but by the release dates completely backwards. The iPod Touch is an iPhone without the modem.

[necovek]

Sure, iPod touch was not much of a difference maker, and I am likely misremembering the dates.

[acdha]

You also missed that Macs were becoming pretty popular before iPhones existed. There were multiple reasons for this but the timeline is nowhere near as simple as you portrayed it.

[necovek]

They were becoming more popular when they switched to Intel CPUs (was it a year before iPhone: 2006?) and with original Air, but really, this was only felt in the US. With M1 they really went ballistic globally.

But sure, it is a simplistic look: for the purposes of the commentary here, I did not want to pretend this is the full analysis, even if I could do one (and I probably couldn't).