“Apple sells hardware and a little bit of high-end software. You are their customer, not their product.”
TANSTAAF operating system.
Right, which is why there’s such a thing as an ‘Apple Tax.’ Although in fairness, the Apple products using their own silicon are such a value right now, I’m not sure if the Apple Tax is as pronounced as it was a few years ago.
When you buy a Samsung or some other phone, there’s almost always going to be 3rd-party apps installed. Why? Because those 3rd-party apps are paying the phone maker (and in some cases, the carrier) to install those apps. When you buy a phone from Apple, none of that garbage is installed because that’s not Apple’s business model.
As Swordmaker says, Apple is in the ECOSYSTEM business, providing a turn-key solution for its users that focuses on privacy and security. They’re no in the ad business or the analytics business. They’re a hardware and software company. Google is an ADVERTISING company. Everything they do is to support their ad and analytics business.