[achierius]

> Compare their hardware revenues with that of the app store and icloud subscriptions, you will see where they make most of their money.

Yes, it's $70B a year from iPhones alone and $23B from the totality of the Services org. (including all app store / subscription proceeds). Significantly more than 50% of the company's total profits come from hardware sales.

[ertgbnm]

In addition, making money off the software that others develop and sell on the app store doesn't make Apple more of a software company, it makes them a middle man.

[alt227]

IMO a middle man means you are in between 2 other services, taking a cut off the top. In this instance, apple not only created and curate the app store, but also invented the concept. In this case they are definitely not a middle man, they are a software company selling access to their software to developers.

[the_arun]

Shouldn’t we compare profit? Instead of revenues?

[transcriptase]

McDonald’s is still a burger joint, even if the soda and fries are far higher margin.

[spogbiper]

mcds is more of a real estate company - https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burg...

[alt227]

Where are you getting these numbers from, care to share source?

We should be comparing profit on those departments not revenue. Do you have those figures?

It is well known that companies often sell the physicval devices at a loss, in order to make the real money from the services on top.

[adastra22]

Apple does not sell hardware at a loss.

[alt227]

Yeah, everyone says stuff like this but nobody can actually produce any reliable sources to show how much profit it actually makes. So until you can, its all guess work.

[adastra22]

Apple is a public company. You can find the numbers (broken down into product aka hardware vs service) here: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2025-q3/FY25_Q3_Consol...

[alt227]

Feel free to do the maths and prove me wrong then.

[adastra22]

The numbers are literally right there. Did you click the link? In the last quarter, they had $67B in hardware sales, with $45B as costs for that division. That’s a profit margin (hardware only) of about 33%. They are not losing money on hardware.